Probation officers accuse LA County of unfair labor practices over forced redeployments

The Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officers Union has filed an unfair labor practice claim against the county that demands reversal of an involuntary redeployment of more than 200 field officers to the county’s troubled juvenile halls on a temporary, full-time basis.

The grievance, submitted to the Los Angeles County Employee Relations Commission, alleges the Probation Department’s leadership “unilaterally implemented changes in the terms and conditions of employment” for union members without negotiations. The redeployments changed employees’ “work location, work schedules, vacations and supervision,” wrote Esteban Lizardo, an attorney representing AFSCME Local 685.

“In sum, the Department has reassigned these employees to an entirely different and more dangerous job classification than these employees’ actual job classification, which many of them have held and performed for more than four years, many for more than 10 years, some for more than 20 years,” Lizardo wrote in the filing.

Employees with medical restrictions, or who could not meet the new physical demands, were sent home and had to use sick or vacation time to avoid losing pay. The shifting of hundreds of officers — either to the halls or to forced leaves — created court delays and concerns about the department’s ability to oversee thousands of convicted criminals on probation.

The union’s claim asks the Employee Relations Commission to order the Probation Department to “cease and desist” the use of involuntary reassignments and forced leaves, to return all union members to their regular assignments and to “make all of those employees whole.”

Probation Department officials were not available for comment Wednesday, June 19, due to the holiday. Lizardo could not be reached for comment.

The county has struggled to maintain staffing minimums at its juvenile halls largely due to a call-out crisis over the past two years. Detention services officers, fearing violence and 24-hour-long shifts, continue to call out in droves, leaving their co-workers — and juveniles — in increasingly poor conditions that only exacerbated the crisis even more.

The surge of reassigned field officers into the halls starting in March was a last-ditch effort by the Probation Department to stop the impending shutdown of its two largest facilities, Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth  Treatment Facility in Sylmar. State regulators had deemed both facilities “unsuitable” for the confinement of youth and ordered their closure, but the bolstered workforce allowed the county to reach the state’s minimum standards to continue operating before the clock ran out.

Probation officials have said the redeployed officers are critical for maintaining compliance. Both juvenile facilities passed recent state inspections in May.

The staffing crisis has seemingly only worsened in the interim. Newly released figures show that a third of the Probation Department’s active employees are now on either continuous or intermittent leave.

The numbers are even more dire within the juvenile halls. As of this month, half of the 791 staff members working within the county’s juvenile institutions were out on leave. Meanwhile, an average of 40 employees — roughly 15% of the staff not on leave —- called out every day at Los Padrinos in May.

The Probation Department is currently cycling out the redeployed officers who have finished their 60-day rotation in the juvenile halls and replacing them with a fresh group of field officers. The changeover is expected to be completed by June 20.

It’s unlikely the unfair labor practice claim will resolve before that second redeployment. The union and probation officials must meet to review the claim and try to come to a mutual agreement before the matter can be sent to arbitration or to the Employee Relations Commission for a hearing. The commission is currently scheduled to hear the matter at its July 22 meeting.