Our Homecare, Personal Care Attendant and Personal Support Bargaining Team met with the State Management’s team on Tuesday, August 22, for our 14th bargaining session this year.

We were able to win Tentative Agreements (TA) addressing concerns workers about State payroll systems and while the agreement doesn’t fix all of the issues we have with the State’s payment systems it does make improvement in key areas.

• State Payroll Systems: Holding the State Accountable for fixing our pay issues when we contact them: We won language that would require the State to create a policy and procedure the Case Management Entities (CME) have to follow when they are contacted by a worker who has a pay issue.
• Late Pay Penalties: We know that providers are paid late, incompletely, or sometimes not at all. Partial Payments and Late Payments have a big impact on us, and so we made sure that we are eligible for penalty fees in cases where there is state administrative or CME error.
• Late/Partial Pay Online Reporting Form: Ensures a stronger process for providers to request penalty payments through an online form. Workers can contact the SEIU 503 Member Assistance Center (MAC) or the Oregon Homecare Commission (OHCC) for assistance in completing the form.
• Enforceable Penalty Pay Timelines: New contract language will ensure the state is held to enforceable timelines when they issue penalty payments and respond to penalty payment requests.
• EVV Exceptions: Clarifies how all providers can get exceptions to the use of Electronic Visit Verification system (EVV).
• Pay Processing Dates: We made improvements to clear up confusion about pay processing dates. It was also agreed that workers will get paid before State & Federal holidays beginning in 2025.

We will meet with the State again on September 5. We remain focused on our top priorities; the creation of a pay scale and strong wage increases and are also still fighting to prevent contracting out our work to private agencies as well as language that would allow us to grieve discrimination.

To learn more about SEIU Local 503 Homecare/PSW Bargaining visit our bargaining web page.