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Outreach workers ask Orange County supervisors for $1.50/hour special assignment pay amid safety concerns
Summary
A large group of Health Care Agency outreach and engagement staff and union representatives told the board about on‑the‑job risks including fentanyl exposure, overdose reversals, and dangerous field conditions and asked the board to direct staff to implement $1.50/hour special assignment pay for outreach workers; supervisors sought clarification on mechanics and cost.
Scores of frontline outreach workers and representatives from the county’s Health Care Agency (HCA) spoke during public comment at the Oct. 8 Board of Supervisors meeting to ask the board to direct staff to add special assignment pay for OC Outreach & Engagement staff.
Michelle Rubio, a senior labor representative for OCEA, said the petition submitted to the board included 61 signatures and cited escalating risks outreach workers encounter while serving people experiencing homelessness, addiction and severe mental illness. ‘‘For the last year we’ve been advocating for this compensation due to the escalating risks that folks are encountering,’’ Rubio said.
Multiple outreach staff detailed field incidents including fentanyl overdose reversals, accidental exposure to fentanyl/narcotics, communicable‑disease transports, extreme weather deployments and physical threats. Rosa Gonzales said outreach teams had performed eight overdose reversals and described a hospitalization after an accidental suspected fentanyl inhalation. Supervising public health nurse Edward Darvin described transporting clients with monkeypox, MRSA and other infections and the protective equipment staff use.
Speakers asked the board to direct staff to establish special assignment pay comparable to existing pay for Crisis Stabilization Unit and Crisis Assessment Team workers, which staff said had been $1.50 per hour for hours worked. County staff and supervisors sought clarification about how an incentive would be implemented and its budgetary impacts; board members asked whether the petitioners sought a flat $1.50/hour premium and requested a response and cost estimate from staff by Oct. 22.
No immediate action was taken at the dais; staff and the board agreed to review the request and return with a recommendation.
What’s next: staff will evaluate the petition, estimate budget impacts, and advise supervisors on how or whether to implement special assignment pay for outreach classifications.
