Unfair labor charges
hurled at Yuba County
MARYVILLE (5/6/03) -- The state Public Employment Relations Board has charged Yuba County with unfair labor practices against health care workers, officials said Monday.
"An information settlement conference will be scheduled shortly," PERB regional attorney Bernard McMonigle said in a May 2 letter to the parties in the dispute.
The county must answer the complaint within 20 days, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 250 said.
Calls and messages to several involved county officials were not returned.
In November, 2002 the Yuba County Board of Supervisors created an In Home Support Services Public Authority, as required by sate law, to give caregivers a legal entity with which to bargain for better wages and benefits.
The authority, which in several respects was a legal fiction, was comprised of the five county supervisors, augmented with an appointed advisory board to field community concerns.
Historically, the county's estimated 550 caregivers have typically earned the state minimum wage with no fringe benefits.
When caregivers have organized in other counties, their wages have risen to between $9.50 and $10.10 an hour, SEIU spokesman Dave Bates reported.
Yuba County supervisors -- who also constitute the IHHS Public Authority -- have allegedly snubbed SEIU organizers, impeded unionization and hobbled the authority with rules intended to limit workers' bargaining rights, said Dana Simon, co-director of SIEU 250's health care workers division.
For example, in setting up the authority the supervisors insisted that:
bargaining with caregivers could not begin until the supervisors had cemented the county's annual budget
once in place the Public Authority could not deviate from the budget, and
funding for any proposed new benefit for caregivers had to be already guaranteed by both state and federal sources before it would be considered
"Many counties have resisted, but none as much as Yuba," Simon said.
Nonetheless, with a strong majority vote Yuba caregivers elected to affiliate with SEIU, with PERB certifying their decision in March. SEIU subsequently complained to PERB about Yuba officials' actions.
Upon reviewing the caregivers' beef, state investigators notified Yuba County Personnel Director Beverly Capaci in a letter May 2 that PERB was issuing a complaint in the matter.
The complaint included all of SEIU's points, and then some, Simon said.
The PERB complaint charged, among other things, that Yuba County officials had unfairly:
"failed to consult in good faith"
"interfered with the rights of bargaining unit employees to be represented" by (SEIU) and
"restricted (the Authority) from engaging in labor negotiations
Capaci, and Yuba County Dan Montgomery could not be reached for comment.
Sacramento Bee
hurled at Yuba County
MARYVILLE (5/6/03) -- The state Public Employment Relations Board has charged Yuba County with unfair labor practices against health care workers, officials said Monday.
"An information settlement conference will be scheduled shortly," PERB regional attorney Bernard McMonigle said in a May 2 letter to the parties in the dispute.
The county must answer the complaint within 20 days, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 250 said.
Calls and messages to several involved county officials were not returned.
In November, 2002 the Yuba County Board of Supervisors created an In Home Support Services Public Authority, as required by sate law, to give caregivers a legal entity with which to bargain for better wages and benefits.
The authority, which in several respects was a legal fiction, was comprised of the five county supervisors, augmented with an appointed advisory board to field community concerns.
Historically, the county's estimated 550 caregivers have typically earned the state minimum wage with no fringe benefits.
When caregivers have organized in other counties, their wages have risen to between $9.50 and $10.10 an hour, SEIU spokesman Dave Bates reported.
Yuba County supervisors -- who also constitute the IHHS Public Authority -- have allegedly snubbed SEIU organizers, impeded unionization and hobbled the authority with rules intended to limit workers' bargaining rights, said Dana Simon, co-director of SIEU 250's health care workers division.
For example, in setting up the authority the supervisors insisted that:
bargaining with caregivers could not begin until the supervisors had cemented the county's annual budget
once in place the Public Authority could not deviate from the budget, and
funding for any proposed new benefit for caregivers had to be already guaranteed by both state and federal sources before it would be considered
"Many counties have resisted, but none as much as Yuba," Simon said.
Nonetheless, with a strong majority vote Yuba caregivers elected to affiliate with SEIU, with PERB certifying their decision in March. SEIU subsequently complained to PERB about Yuba officials' actions.
Upon reviewing the caregivers' beef, state investigators notified Yuba County Personnel Director Beverly Capaci in a letter May 2 that PERB was issuing a complaint in the matter.
The complaint included all of SEIU's points, and then some, Simon said.
The PERB complaint charged, among other things, that Yuba County officials had unfairly:
"failed to consult in good faith"
"interfered with the rights of bargaining unit employees to be represented" by (SEIU) and
"restricted (the Authority) from engaging in labor negotiations
Capaci, and Yuba County Dan Montgomery could not be reached for comment.
Sacramento Bee
<< Home