In April, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors thought they had required all employers contracted by the county for non-medical hospital personnel to provide employer-paid, healthcare benefits.
But as it turned out, due to a loophole, healthcare benefits were not added and in some cases, old contracts were extended without these benefits.
Since the April 4 board order only applied to new contracts, the changes did not go into effect for employees working under existing contracts with third-party employers. Also, the county Department of Health Services (DHS) extended some contracts, meaning the existing terms carried over. And supervisors said the new contracts were taking too long.
On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the board unanimously passed a new order that will close that loophole. The order directed DHS to amend existing contracts to require 100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for hospital contract employees who work 30 hours or more per week. The action requires the healthcare benefit to take effect no later than March 31, 2024.
The board order affects about 1,600 janitorial, environmental, security and food service workers at hospitals owned and operated by the county.
The five county-owned and operated hospitals are Los Angeles General Medical Center, Martin Luther King, Jr., Harbor-UCLA, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.
“These workers are frustrated and they’ve even voted to strike over this issue,” said Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, a co-author of the motion.
The passage of the fix-it order averted a strike by the SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW). “The strike was called off. We had authorized a three-day strike across the L.A. County hospital system,” said Sebastian Silva, union spokesman.
About 100 union members were in attendance Tuesday to support the motion. Many testified they were pleased that the contracts would be reopened to include the healthcare…
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