200 Probation Officers Absent in Wage Dispute

More than 200 unionized Los Angeles County probation officers called in sick Tuesday in an apparent effort to pressure Los Angeles County into giving them a raise in ongoing labor negotiations.

The sickout comes on the heels of a similar effort by county deputy sheriffs, who were told by a Superior Court judge last week to stop engaging in a so-called blue flu as a way of forcing the county to meet their demands for a 5% annual raise in each of the next three years.

Ralph Miller of the Los Angeles County Probation Officers Union said at least several hundred of the county’s 3,000 unionized probation officers called in sick Tuesday. He said as many as two dozen of the county’s 19 juvenile camps, four juvenile halls and three area offices were hard hit by the work actions.

Miller said probation officers have been working without a contract for 18 months, and are asking for the same wage increase as deputy sheriffs. “Our people are upset,” he said.