County Sues to Stop Sickout and Alleged Harassment by Deputies

Los Angeles County lawyers filed suit Wednesday seeking to stop sheriff’s deputies, many of whom serve as court bailiffs, from calling in sick to protest stalled labor negotiations, and from allegedly harassing county officials with lewd and obscene phone calls.

In the last week, hundreds of sworn deputies have not shown up for work at courthouses and jail facilities in an effort to pressure the county into giving them significant pay raises.

The lawsuit says deputies also have been making hundreds of phone calls a day at times--from union headquarters--to county supervisors’ offices, many of them sexually suggestive and threatening. The suit cites traces placed on the supervisors’ office phones.

Union officials representing the deputies Wednesday denied encouraging any employees to walk off the job or harass county officials.

“We have not sanctioned and we have not encouraged people to call in sick,” said Bud Treece, executive director of the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. “I think what you are seeing is, individual by individual, a human reaction to what has happened over the last few years.”

The suit, seeking a temporary restraining order against the union, is expected to be heard this morning in Los Angeles Superior Court.

A restraining order, if granted, would prohibit officers represented by the union from participating in any type of work protest, such as the “blue flu.”

In affidavits filed in support of the restraining order, Sheriff’s Department officials said the work stoppages have caused delays and gaps in service in the county’s vast court system and in the transfer of thousands of jail inmates.

Moreover, the sickouts over the past few weeks are “generally endangering the lives and safety of residents who rightfully expect the law enforcement services that deputy sheriffs are hired to provide,” the county’s lawsuit alleges.

Cmdr. Dennis Dahlman, acting chief of the Sheriff’s Court Services Division, said the work stoppages have resulted in the dismissal of six criminal cases--mostly narcotics-related--because prisoners were not brought to court in a timely fashion.

Some courtrooms were forced to operate without bailiffs in recent days because of sickouts, and the Sheriff’s Department has been hampered in its ability to track down fugitives, Dahlman said in his sworn declaration.

“It’s having a significant impact. [There are] a lot of cases that don’t get before a judge, and inmates who don’t get to court because we have no one to guard them once they get there,” Dahlman said in an interview. “We’re doing a lot of juggling to get the right cases before judges so we don’t lose them.”

Such juggling, however, is costing the Sheriff’s Department hundreds of hours in overtime pay and forcing it to shift personnel to fill in for the custody bailiffs and court deputies who are calling in sick, Dahlman said.

Treece accused the county of promising deputies a significant raise in recent years and then trying to negotiate a new labor contract this year that doesn’t include it. The union’s members have been working without a contract for about eight months, and the union is asking for a 5% raise in each of the next three years.

The county has offered about 1.5% in each of those years.

Treece also denied knowing about any union members making harassing phone calls to county officials. He described the allegation as a “smoke screen” to draw attention away from “the real issue, which is that they don’t have a fair pay proposal on the table.”

In their petition, county lawyers said the California Court of Appeal has clearly ruled that peace officers are prohibited from striking and may not engage in sickouts, work slowdowns or any other kind of work action while labor negotiations are in progress.

The sickouts continued Wednesday with hundreds of deputies calling in.

In addition, nearly 170 clerks also called in sick at 10 superior and municipal courthouses from San Pedro to downtown Los Angeles. But officials of the superior and municipal courts said the job action by more than 70% of the clerks did not result in any major disruption.

“In some courtrooms,” said Superior Court spokeswoman Jerrianne Hayslett, “judges took notes” for official records of the proceedings.