County Children's Social Workers Strike for Lower Caseloads

The union representing Los Angeles County's approximately 4,000 children's social workers has called a strike for Thursday in an attempt to get lower caseloads, a union official told City News Service tonight.

"The county has shown no willingness to make meaningful reforms which leaves us with little choice but to go on strike," Lowell Goodman, the communications director of Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents about 55,000 county workers, including the children's social workers, told City News Service.

"It is so sad is that through so many months of bargaining, the county has refused to move forward on reforms that would benefit the children of Los Angeles."

County public information officer David Sommers said it was "extremely disappointing that they're willing to take such a serious action that will have a negative impact on public services at a time where we are so close to finalizing an agreement."

The Department of Children and Family Services will have 300-400 administrators provide "front line services" during the strike, Sommers said.

"We have plans that will assure that the public will be as minimally impacted as possible," Sommers said.

Union negotiators have been asking the county to enforce a maximum caseload of 30 children per social worker. To reach that yardstick, they want a commitment from the county to hire 35 social workers each month until 595 new hires are brought on board, according to Lowell Goodman, the communications director of Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents about 55,000 county workers, including the social workers.

Of the department's 1,035 social workers who manage cases, 683 are working with 31 children or more, Goodman said.

The department has hired 100 additional social workers who will be carrying full caseloads by January and is in the process of screening 150 more, department director Philip Browning said. Another roughly 100 positions are funded.

Browning estimated that the average caseload per social worker would come down to 29 by January and to the mid-20s by August.

However, he stressed that careful screening and background checks are critical for employees in such sensitive positions and take time.

According to the county, labor negotiators have reached settlements with 21 of 24 union bargaining units, but talks stalled with the remaining units Tuesday night when SEIU negotiators declared an impasse.

Sommers said a main sticking point is a dispute over the timing of a pay raise being offered by the county.

The union and county have agreed on a 6 percent pay boost -- 2 percent in each of the three contract years -- along with bonuses and a boost in county contributions to employee health care costs in 2014 and 2015, Sommers said.

Sommers said the union is calling for one of the 2 percent increases to take effect two months earlier than normal, effectively making the raise retroactive.

"This movement would constitute a form of retroactivity which violates the county's bargaining practices and would be unfair to other county bargaining units who negotiated in good faith and settled their contracts on time," Sommers said.

According to a union letter sent to members and obtained by the Los Angeles Times, union officials said the county is "only offering to provide this 2 percent increase after settlement (of negotiations), thereby screwing SEIU 721 members out of at least two months' salary increase."

Sommers said county officials recognized workers' right to take part in such a job action. But he noted the workers would not be paid by the county while they are on strike.

"If an employee participated in a work action for just one day, that employee would lose more money in a single day than they would gain if the last 2 percent were given two months earlier, as SEIU is demanding," Sommers said.

Goodman said union officials are aware its members would lose more money by striking than they would gain from an earlier increase. He called this a "non-economic strike" intended to reduce the caseloads.