Can any political issue be more of a headache right now for our Lake County Board of Supervisors than In-Home Supportive Services? Union negotiations have been going on for four years with no end in sight. And now, to complicate matters, California United Healthcare Workers wants to spearhead a recall election.
The crucial issue in the recall is that the BOS wants to create a county registry of workers and to make qualifying for the registry a condition for receiving a raise.
Registry standards are hardly onerous — merely obtain CPR and first aid training and pass drug screening and criminal background check. Lake County would pick up the tab, not the IHSS workers nor their clients. Some of our local workers have already voluntarily sought training.
The union, however, wants a pay increase to apply to everybody regardless of training or background.
We think the BOS is right to push for these standards because in every medical profession you can think of, there are minimum standards that apply — with lifelong additional learning to keep your credentials intact.
IHSS is supposed to be non-medical but the reality is that workers” patients can sometimes depend on them completely. An IHSS worker can be a lonely client”s only contact with the rest of the world. Do we really want these vulnerable clients to be at the mercy of a few “rotten apples”?
The IHSS worker registry is a necessary tool to safeguard the safety of clients and by insisting on a registry, the Lake County Board of Supervisors is protecting our society”s most vulnerable residents. We urge Lake County voters to refuse to sign any petitions that would force recall elections of our supervisors.
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