I-775 seeks to improve home care services

By Sharon Salyer

Herald Writer

Initiative 775 seeks to provide better working conditions for in-home care workers, employees who typically make less than $8 an hour and who are hired to help the elderly and disabled with tasks such as washing their hair, grocery shopping and housework.

It would create a nine-member authority to regulate the employees doing this work, including their qualifications, background investigations and training. It also would allow these employees to unionize.

The state’s Office of Financial Management estimates that it would cost about $3 million a year to create the authority and to fund other tasks called for under the proposal during its first two years.

Among the groups backing the initiative are the Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Citizen Action and Service Employees International Union. The union represents home care workers in California and has spent just less than $1 million on the campaign, said Adam Glickman, a spokesman for initiative backers.

Sharon Bowers, director of Sunrise Home Care, an Everett-based business employing 140 home care aids, said she applauds the interest of initiative backers in workers from whom so much is expected. But she worries about the costs of creating another government bureaucracy, especially at a time when voters are in an anti-tax mood.

"The aging population is dramatically increasing," she said. "The wages of home care aids are not.

"I don’t see how this initiative will help the basic problem" of funding worker wages, she said.

The state’s rapidly increasing aging population means the state will have to invest more money to serve this group, Glickman countered.

Improved training, a registry to help those who need workers find them and collective bargaining rights to help improve worker wages are just some of the steps that need to be taken, he said.

"I believe investing a modest amount now will actually save the state significant dollars down the road," he added.

You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486

or send e-mail to salyer@heraldnet.com.

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