Posted on the CAPT website
www.psychtechs.net
February 27, 2010

Union: 14 more layoffs at PDC

According to the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians (CAPT), 14 Porterville Developmental Center employees will lose their jobs Sunday due to state staffing cuts and hiring freezes. As with the recently-announced layoffs of the facility’s 28 security guards, there are concerns that the additional pink slips will push already increasing overtime hours to new heights, and simultaneously decrease safety at the state hospital which houses potentially dangerous clients.

The layoffs, which were reported to The Recorder Friday afternoon, will affect employees who were hired under temporary contracts to provide assistance in general behavioral and psychiatric nursing care to hospital’s developmentally disabled clients.

“Everything at our state 24-hour facilities hinges on staffing, and when staffing goes down, costs and hazards go up — it’s that simple,” said Ed Vartanian, president of CAPT’s Porterville Chapter. “Unlike Governor Schwarzenegger, our facility actually understands the safety and cost-saving need for these registry staff, but they’re still being mandated to cut them.”

Under their classification, pre-licensed psychiatric technicians are only required to have graduated from an accredited training program, such as the one offered at Porterville College, and were hired for a period not to exceed nine months.

But, according to Vartanian, the 14 staff being laid off have all received their licenses, and due to ongoing state hiring freezes and vacancy eliminations within the Department of Developmental Services — the state agency that oversees the state’s five developmental centers — the staff cannot be hired on to fully use their licenses.

They earn an monthly salary that ranges from $2,727 to $2,996.

“Historically, psych techs graduate, earn their licenses and there is employment for them, but PDC has been told to cut its staffing allocations,” Vartanian said.

Because the pre-licensed positions are short term assignments, the DDS does not consider the move a layoff. “There are no layoffs anywhere in our system of the pre-licensed psych techs,” Nancy Lungren, a spokeswoman for DDS said. “At Porterville we only have the layoffs of security guards.”

Located off Highway 190, the PDC operates 24/7 to house and treat the severely developmentally disabled. Like other state agencies, it has had cuts due to the California budget crisis, including three mandatory “furlough” days per month. Most PDC employees do not get the time off, however, but receive less pay and are credited with hours they may be able to take off in the future.

According to CAPT, with fewer staff to fill vacancies more full-time staff will have to work overtime at time-and-a-half regular pay to ensure legal staffing requirements are met.

In December, the union found that its 759 local members worked 5,900 hours of overtime at PDC in November, costing taxpayers as much as $180,000 in November alone.

“The union fears that, with 14 additional layoffs planned, overtime costs will continue to increase while safety at the facility will decrease,” a press release states.

CAPT is seeking to lift the state’s hiring freeze at 24-hour facilities, in addition to reducing or eliminating unpaid furloughs. The union’s lawsuit on unpaid furloughs at 24/7 state facilities, originally scheduled to be heard Jan. 15, is now scheduled for March 19.

“I applaud PDC’s efforts to try to keep these employees on, but the state refuses to give them adequate resources. It’s getting more and more dangerous every day, and our governor shows no concern for those working or living at Porterville Developmental Center,” Vartanian said.