House workforce committee lays over nursing home, community and career-pathway bills for later budget action

The House Workforce, Labor and Economic Development Finance and Policy Committee on Thursday heard presentations and testimony on six bills addressing nursing home worker training and definitions, two West Broadway (North Minneapolis) community business and youth workforce proposals, and three workforce-education/apprenticeship pathway programs. Committee co-chairs Representative Dave Pinto and Chair Dave Baker presided; the committee laid all six bills over for possible inclusion in a later budget bill rather than advancing any to an immediate vote.

Why it matters: The bills cover worker training tied to recently adopted nursing home workforce standards, technical fixes to the standards' scope, neighborhood economic development and youth employment programs in North Minneapolis, and several statewide career-pathway programs (construction trades and operating engineers) that aim to funnel young people, veterans and other underrepresented groups into apprenticeships and family-sustaining careers. Several members said the measures intersect with larger budget choices and federal funding questions that will determine how much the state can sustain via appropriations.

The bills and key points

House File 339 (Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board—training funds) Representative [author identified in transcript as Representative Ekbaje/Bauge] presented HF 339, which would appropriate $1,000,000 in one-time funding for the upcoming biennium to reimburse certified worker organizations that provide the statutorily required training for nursing home workers about their rights under the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board. Testimony came from Travis Birth, a nursing home worker and union representative with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, who said the training is needed so workers know how to enforce rules such as holiday time-and-a-half and the industry minimum wage rule that is contingent on…