Social Workers’ Sick-Out Protests Caseloads

Sixty-two social workers and 13 supervisors called in sick Thursday to protest an overload of cases which puts foster care children in the Antelope Valley area at risk, a union spokeswoman said.

The Lancaster office of the Department of Children and Family Services has 87 social workers and 17 supervisors, said Sarah Bottorff, a two-year social worker and shop steward for Service Employees International Union Local 535.

Department supervisors were unavailable for comment.

The department’s rank-and-file workers countywide have been unhappy for years with the number of cases per social worker--presently ranging between 45 and 60, Bottorff said. An ideal number would be around 30, she said.

She said high-ranking officials at the department’s downtown headquarters promised during 1996 contract negotiations to reduce the caseloads. But when no improvement was apparent a few weeks ago, talk began to circulate countywide about walkouts.

“It’s been a difficult decision for all of us,” Bottorff said.

Staffers in the Lancaster office said the high number of cases per individual and an increasing amount of paperwork ordered by the department make it nearly impossible to handle the required monthly visit with each child, court appearances and other appointments.

Because the county’s children’s court in the Antelope Valley closed, workers spend a substantial portion of the day making the 75-mile one-way trek to the Los Angles court, Bottorff said.

She said workers ideally would like to visit each child once a week for at least an hour so they can determine whether the children are in adequate environments.

“We think the kids are suffering,” she said. “I hate to use this word, but you do drive-by visits when you work in a rush.”

On March 6, about 622 of the county’s 2,757 social workers and their immediate supervisors in other offices called in sick, Bottorff said.

Seventeen probationary social workers at the Lancaster office were encouraged by organizers to report to work Thursday because they do not have sick days as a work benefit and would be subject to dismissal, Bottorff said.

“The main goal was to get the attention of the department,” said Robert Lopez, a staffer who participated.