LAKE COUNTY – A tentative contractual agreement reached between the county and the union for In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers on Tuesday is being held under wraps until the county's IHSS providers vote to ratify it, officials said Wednesday.

The Board of Supervisors – serving jointly as the Board of Directors for the Lake County Public Authority, which oversees the IHSS program – announced the agreement with the California United Homecare Workers Tuesday afternoon.

IHSS providers offer in-home care to elderly, ill and physically challenged clients.

County Counsel Anita Grant said Wednesday that the agreement must next go to the union membership. Until the IHSS providers ratify the agreement, which covers both wages and benefits, its terms can't be discussed.

Grant said the prohibition against releasing information at this time was based on ground rules the county agreed to during negotiations.

Once the agreement is formalized, it will become public, said Grant, and will be taken up at a public meeting.

She confirmed that Tuesday's closed session during the board meeting involved the negotiations, but she could not disclose more specifics.

Scott Mann, spokesman for California United Homecare Workers, echoed Grant's remarks on Wednesday. “At this point in time the details are not being disclosed.”

The vote of the county's more than 1,300 IHSS workers to ratify the contract should be coming up very quickly, Mann said.

“The bargaining team is quite pleased,” Mann said. “They're hopeful that the membership will agree.”

The union and the county clashed last year over a proposed two-tier pay system that would have given $1 more an hour to IHSS providers who agreed to several conditions, including drug testing. Lake County's IHSS workers currently receive minimum wage and no health benefits.

Last June, the union filed an unfair labor practices charge against the Lake County Public Authority with the state's Public Employment Relations Board, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by Lake County News.

In its complaint, the union charged that the county violated the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act and employment relations board regulations by failing to meet and confer in good faith with the union on the two-tier pay proposal.

Public Employee Relations Program staffer Les Chisholm said Wednesday that the complaint is still working its way through the system.

Although the case hasn't reached the full board yet, Chisholm said the agency issued a complaint on the matter Jan. 2.

“The issuance of a complaint means that the initial review resulted in a conclusion that there was what's known as a 'prima facie' case,” Chisholm said.

He explained that prima facie (a Latin phrase which means “on its first appearance”) means that, if the facts of the case are true, it would constitute conduct that is a violation.

Issuing the complaint is a step in the process. “It's not,” Chisholm emphasized, “a finding that the act has been violated.”

Chisholm said the agency has scheduled a settlement conference between the county and union for Jan. 31.

In that conference, a Public Employee Relations Program staffer will meet with both parties and attempt to mediate an agreement, said Chisholm.

He added that the agency places a “big premium” on working with parties to come to voluntary settlements.

If a settlement isn't reached, said Chisholm, both parties would go before a Public Employee Relations Program judge. At that point the union would have the burden of proof in proving the county had violated labor regulations.

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