DHA - ABAWD

Greetings, union brothers and sisters,

Your 008 negotiations team met with the department regarding the implementation of ABAWD requirements effective June 1, 2026.  At our request, the department provided a guideline or “script” to assist workers in eliciting responses from clients in order to meet an exemption per HR1 requirements. UPE felt that some of those suggested questions could lead clients to request resources based on their answer. The department agreed and will be amending the document to include actual suggestions when applicable.

UPE had proposed that intake & RE appointments be lengthened due to additional duties related to ABAWD. The department denied that proposal. We then proposed that if they weren’t going to allow additional time for appointments, they agreed to a consistent and streamlined process for rescheduling an upcoming appointment as needed. DHA agreed to this but asked for some time to create the process and provide it to us for review.

UPE will be following up with management in the coming weeks to ensure that a commitment is made. Lastly, we proposed, and the department agreed to a follow-up meeting post-implementation in 90 days. At that time, the department will provide us with average appointment lengths in order to determine if there are any additional ABAWD impacts.

As always, UPE will keep our members informed of follow-up efforts, so stay tuned.

Special thanks to Olivia Brown and Stephanie McCall for their participation in this negotiation.