UNION FILES COMPLAINT OVER JAILS

SEIU accuses sheriff of violating bargaining rules for its health care workers

The union that represents 300 nurses, mental health counselors and other San Diego County jail employees has lodged a complaint with state officials accusing the Sheriff ’s Department of violating the law related to collective bargaining.

According to the complaint to the Public Employment Relations Board, the Sheriff ’s Department has failed to bargain in good faith with Service Employees International Union Local 221 about a proposal to outsource health care in the county’s jails.

“The county has long sought to privatize this union work and over the course of the past year has unilaterally acted on this desire in violation of state law,” the complaint states.

County officials also are “courting the interest of a multibillion-dollar for-profit prison health care company with a fraught patient safety record and a penchant for attracting lawsuits,” the complaint adds.

The complaint is the latest development in a long-running dispute over the Sheriff ’s Department outsourcing plan, which would retain a single contractor to oversee all health care obligations within the seven-facility county jail system

Medical and mental-health care for county inmates is now provided by a mix of county employees and private contractors. The current system has been questioned as inmates continue to die or get sick while in San Diego County custody.

The Sheriff ’s Department has declined to comment on the union’s complaint.

County spokesman