Helpers of disabled seeking pay raise

For the last 24 years, Robin Congdon of Rutland has worked as a personal care attendant for a childhood friend, Cindy Purcell , who was paralyzed in a car accident. Congdon helps Purcell bathe, get dressed, make breakfast, and prepare for work.

In all the years that she has helped Purcell remain independent, Congdon said, the state Medicaid program has given her few pay raises. It now pays her just $10.84 an hour, up from $10.60 last year, with no benefits.

``We're saving money for the state, but they're not returning the favor," Congdon said. ``Over the years we have gotten these minuscule raises, and the state seemed to think it was enough to shut us up."

That could change, starting next year. The 1199SEIU union, the state's second-largest healthcare union, empowered by a law approved by the Legislature this year, despite a veto by Governor Mitt Romney , is preparing to organize the estimated 21,000 personal care attendants who are compensated under Medicaid .

The SEIU must collect signatures from at least 10 percent of the personal care attendants, which will trigger a state-supervised union election, perhaps next year. If the union succeeds, the state will probably begin paying higher wages and providing better benefits for the large pool of workers.

Under the state's Medicaid program, the attendants care for people with disabilities and for the elderly, helping them to remain in their own homes instead of being placed in nursing homes or other institutions. Although some people with disabilities can hire family members and friends, most consult nonprofit agencies to locate one of the thousands of independent contract workers who make up the workforce.

The union organizing effort will take place under provisions of an unusual piece of legislation that allows personal care attendants to be recognized as a collective bargaining unit by the state -- but only for setting wages and benefits. The personal care attendants will otherwise remain independent contractors subject to the hiring and firing decisions of the consumers they care for.

Also under the legislation, the state is setting up a Quality Workforce Council that will set the wages and benefits, establish a registry of personal care attendants to make it easier for consumers to find them, and coordinate recruitment, training, and background checks.

In his veto, which the Legislature overrode, Romney said the legislation appeared to be fashioned mostly for the benefit of 1199SEIU, which lobbied hard and played a key role in forming a coalition to support passage.

Romney said the measure creates unnecessary bureaucracy and will drive up costs in the MassHealth program, although he gave no cost estimates. He predicted the new system will result in ``unrealistic and unsustainable collective bargaining agreements."

But the House sponsor of the legislation, Democratic Representative Lida E. Harkins of Needham, said the legislation is badly needed to help poorly paid workers who perform a valuable service for the state. It will result in better coordination of personal care attendants, she said, and make it easier for consumers to locate them.

A healthcare consumer with multiple sclerosis, Liz Casey of Roslindale, said she has had trouble finding and keeping good personal care attendants in the last two decades. It has required constant interviewing, reference checks, and networking. ``It's a full-time job," she said. ``I feel like I run a business."

The 1199SEIU union garnered the support of advocates for the disabled in its drive to win passage of the legislation. One of those advocates, Bill Henning, director of the Boston Center for Independent Living, said the bill was crafted in negotiations over several key points. Advocates demanded that disabled people and their families retain control over hiring and firing of individual care attendants, he said.

The legislation also contained a no-strike clause, so consumers will not suddenly be left without their caregivers. Additionally, the Quality Workforce Council will contain representatives of nonprofit groups that advocate for the disabled and the elderly, Henning said. The council is expected to convene its first meeting this fall.

Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com.