In a win for county workplace janitors whose labor dispute has pulled within the Board of Supervisors, San Diego County will ask its janitorial contractors to guard working situations and rights of janitors, landscapers and different workers as a situation of holding their contracts, the board determined in a break up vote Tuesday.
Corporations working for the county should abide by a brand new coverage spelling out these rights, or their contacts will expire after the primary 12 months and the county will solicit aggressive bids to fill them.
In a 4-1 vote, the board directed the contracting division to barter with present contractors to include the brand new labor requirements into present contracts for janitorial, landscaping and safety companies, and licensed the company to solicit bids for that work if an settlement can’t be reached. Supervisor Jim Desmond objected, saying new contracts can be too costly.
The brand new county coverage protects janitors, landscapers and safety employees in opposition to wage theft, sexual harassment and different unfair work practices by county contractors, setting wage requirements and making a wage-theft fund to reimburse workers. However the coverage, handed in December, doesn’t apply to contracts entered earlier than that.
County janitors have been pushing since late final 12 months for his or her employer, Nova, to conform to labor requirements the board handed in December for brand new county contractors. In addition they need recognition of their union.
Final month, Nova janitors went on strike after a employee mentioned she had been pressured to work with caustic chemical substances and no protecting tools, then fired together with three others, in what the union charged was retaliation.
The janitors agreed to return to work throughout a two-week cooling-off interval after county officers pledged to research. The 4 fired workers have been reinstated with again pay final week, and officers mentioned negotiations with the corporate over employee protections are ongoing.
Nova workers nonetheless need the corporate to voluntarily acknowledge their union, and to conform to the county’s new labor requirements. They’ve left open the choice to renew their strike if they’ll‘t make progress however will hold working now that a few of their calls for have been met, mentioned Christian Ramirez, coverage director for SEIU-USWW, which helps the staff manage a union.
Ramirez known as Tuesday’s vote by the supervisors “a concrete step in the correct route, with the final word purpose of reaching a collective bargaining settlement with Nova or a accountable contractor.”
He mentioned he hopes negotiations with the corporate will conclude inside 30 to 60 days.
As soon as their union has been acknowledged by Nova, they might start collectively bargaining towards a contract that establishes pay, advantages and work situations akin to these of different unionized janitors at personal corporations in San Diego.
