Social Workers Set to Hold Rally for Wage Hike, Caseload Drop

Social workers from Pasadena and other Los Angeles County areas are set to hold a protest in front the County Board of Supervisors offices on October 1 to ask for a wage hike and lesser caseloads.

The Services Employees International Union local 721 is organizing a workers’ walkout against Los Angeles County’s proposed “modest” wage increase without additional medical contributions, which would allegedly increase the expenses of workers to up to $100 a month,  Randy Slavich, 33, a caseworker in Department of Children and Family Services Pasadena office told the Chronicle of Social Change.

Slavich, who claimed to have a load of 43 cases, added that he would prefer an increase in the number of social workers than to have a wage hike, especially after he had an anxiety attack over workload pressure earlier this month.

“I had a panic attack and threw up. When I told my supervisor, she said that sucks, but you are about to go up into the fifties,” Slavich told the periodical. “You have an organization designed to meet psycho-social needs of children, but that treats its workers like robots.”

The Department’s Director Philip Browning said the managers will be the ones tasked to handle the rally because the Department’s “concern would be an impact on children and families,” the Chronicle reported.

Browning said the increase in the number of child abuse resulted to additional caseloads, but noted that the Department only has a two-percent annual work force reduction rate, the periodical reported.

“If people were so unhappy and so disappointed, people would be leaving by droves,” Browning told the Chronicle. “But the numbers aren’t bearing that out.”

Browning added that the department recently employed 100 workers, and will be hiring 150 more by January or February.

“We hope this will provide some relief,” Browning told the Chronicle. “This is a tough job. I wouldn’t debate anyone and say this easy.”

To this, Slavich said “they hired 250 but we need 2,000.”

Slavich said the union will hold another strike a week after October 1 if the Department will not respond to the demands of the workers, the Chronicle reported.