Countywide : Welfare Workers Stay Off the Job in Droves

Welfare workers, whose union is bargaining with the county for a better contract, called in sick in droves Monday, with nearly two-thirds of scheduled workers staying off the job.

JoAnn Horstman, president of the Orange County Eligibility Workers Union, said the “sick-out” was not authorized or called by the union, but “was just a spontaneous demonstration of individuals because of their frustration over the stagnation of our negotiations.”

But John Sibley, the county’s director of employee relations, countered that “it would be pretty naive of me to say the union did not in one way or another sponsor” the absenteeism.

Sibley said only 134 of the 345 scheduled workers appeared on the job Monday. He said another 142 eligibility workers had the day off as scheduled.

Horstman said that in the Anaheim office, where she works, only one-third of the employees appeared for work. She said she was told that in a Santa Ana office that provides assistance to refugees only four of 100 workers showed up.

The union’s contract expires Thursday, but the Board of Supervisors last week extended it for a month, a move Sibley said was intended to insure that workers did not lose their benefits.

Both sides met with a mediator June 21, but there have been no new talks since then. Pay and the length of the contract are the main issues of dispute, according to officials on both sides.

Last Friday, county officials said dozens of welfare recipients reported receiving written or oral instructions that if there were problems with their payments they should contact the supervisors directly, rather than the eligibility workers, whose job it is to help them.

Sibley said the mailed instructions had been referred to the district attorney’s office for investigation of the use of county funds for non-county business. Horstman said the union repeatedly cautioned its members not to use county facilities for union matters.