Health Inspectors to Discuss Job Action

Los Angeles County health inspectors who are refusing to drive their personal cars during a contract dispute will face longer suspensions and may find their bosses doing inspections for them, county officials said Monday.

The 320 inspectors involved in the dispute will meet tonight in Alhambra to discuss the future of their job action against the county, including a possible restraining order to stop the suspensions.

Since the job action began Wednesday, about 50 inspectors have been suspended for up to a day for refusing to drive their personal vehicles to assignments. The union is seeking a temporary restraining order to curb the suspensions.

The inspectors, who have been working without a contract with the Department of Health Services for nearly two years, have not received a cost of living increase in three years or a mileage increase in 13 years.

“These suspensions are arbitrary and capricious,” said Jim Somers, a negotiator for the Los Angeles County Assn. of Environmental Health Specialists, the union representing the inspectors.

Somers said. “They’re simply trying to stonewall us with these phony suspensions.”

But Oscar Castro, director of environmental planning and evaluation for the Environmental Health unit, said the suspensions are legitimate and are going to increase. For each day that an inspector doesn’t drive his or her car to assignments, he said, a day’s suspension will result.

“It will be progressive,” Castro said. “They are refusing a direct order to drive their vehicles to their assignments.”

If the dispute does not end soon, Castro said health officials will also consider sending supervisors out into the field to conduct inspections.

But there may be problems getting supervisors to cooperate. At least one supervisor, who refused to be identified, said he would not comply with an order to suspend a worker, saying that he did not believe he had the authority.

Despite the suspensions, about 320 inspectors have continued to investigate health complaints at eateries, supermarkets and other locations by walking, bicycling or riding public transportation throughout the county.

As a result, only about 5% of inspections are being done, something which worries officials such as Castro.