A recent ruling by a federal judge is expected to make it easier for home healthcare workers to unionize, the Associated Press reports.
District Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocked a Department of Health and Human Services rule that changed Medicaid state payment requirements. The rule made it more difficult for states to deduct employee benefits and union dues from workers’ paychecks, Chhabria found. That, in turn, would have made it more difficult for Medicaid in-home workers to unionize and advocate for higher pay and better working conditions, he said.
The rule would have negatively affected the bargaining rights of more than half a million home healthcare workers in California alone as well as hundreds of thousands of additional workers in other states, opponents contended.
The challenge to the rule was filed by California Attorney General Xavier Bacerra and attorneys general in Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington. HHS sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, but Chhabria issued a summary judgment blocking the rule, which had been adopted in 2018 but had not yet been enforced.
The Golden State has allowed participants in the In-Home Supportive Services Medicaid program to unionize for almost 30 years.
