Divided testimony as Oregon committee holds public hearing on bill to create home‑care workforce standards board

The House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards on March 17 opened a public hearing on House Bill 3,838, a measure that would establish a Home and Community‑Based Service Workforce Standards Board to set minimum standards for wages, benefits, training and staffing across a range of care settings.

Representative Dacia Graber, the bill's chief sponsor, told the committee the board is intended "to strengthen the supply of skilled home and community based services workforce by examining factors that may present challenges to recruiting and retaining workers including but not limited to compensation work schedules and other working conditions and allow us to adopt rules that establish minimum workforce standards." Graber said the sponsors and stakeholders are preparing an amendment to limit the board's authority over costs so that any standard that requires funding would be considered and ratified by the legislature.

Supporters said the board would give direct care workers a formal voice and help stabilize a workforce that faces low pay and high turnover. Melissa Unger, executive director of SEIU Local 503, told the committee "caregivers face poverty wages, burnout, and extreme turnover, which threatens care quality as demand rises." David Madland, a senior…