UPE met and conferred on September 21, 2026, with representatives from DHA regarding changes to the handling of WTW sanctions. First, all sanctions must be cured on intake (if there has been a 30-day break in aid), during recertification, and now during continuing contacts where clients express a desire to cure the sanction and an intent to participate in WTW activities. These changes are state-mandated. The state promised a change to CAL-SAWs that would automatically cure

Greetings UPE Family! On September 14, 2026, your UPE negotiations team met with the Department of Child, Family and Adult Services (DCFAS) and the Office of Labor Relations about the update made to the above-referenced policy. There are two (2) updates to this policy: the first being an update to form CS106 and the second being an update to the name of Publication 86 listed in the Related Documents section of this policy. The form CS106 (Special Skills Service Request) was

Greetings UPE Family! On September 14, 2026, your UPE negotiations team met with the Department of Child, Family and Adult Services (DCFAS) and the Office of Labor Relations about the update made to the above-referenced policy. There was a complete overhaul of this P&P since the last one was in 2001. In the policy, it was not clear whether a referral has already been made to the PHN by ER and whether there is a PHN assigned; if the referral is promoted to IS, does there

Your negotiation team met with the department to address the changes in how help desk tickets can now result in a breach of confidentiality. This change causes the potential for discipline among our members. Management explained that there was a review of confidentiality breaches countywide. In doing so, the department identified a practice in help desk ticket submissions that were considered breaches when submitted to the wrong D Tech department. UPE feels that the communica

UPE learned today that DHA has already implemented changes related to SB 119. This implementation is a violation of California Labor Law, and UPE has demanded that the Department cease and desist from its implementation until UPE and DHA can meet. If the Department fails to cease and desist then UPE will file an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the Department for its violation of California Labor Law. The two sides are already scheduled to meet on this issue on Septemb

Your negotiation team met with the department to address the department-wide increase in intake appointments. The department denies that this is a change, claiming that seven to eight appointments per day is normal and not new. UPE strongly disagrees. We explained the challenges of meeting this schedule while also completing additional required duties. We continue to stress the need for more time for each intake, citing the length of the Rights and Responsibilities recording

Your 008 negotiations team met with the department regarding the mandatory requirement to utilize the Work Number at intake, SAR & renewal/recertification. The department shared an ACL (All County Letter) from CDSS (California Department of Social Services) that is making the use of the Work Number mandatory for all eligibility staff due to HR1 implementation. UPE understands that the County has no option but to impose this mandate; however, with an already unmanageable workl

Your 008 negotiations team met with the department for the final time regarding their proposal to add more work to HSS staff in ICT & TOA units. UPE proposed a 5% differential for any HSS expected to perform out-of-class duties. Currently, Program Specialists are resolving the state-compiled list of duplicate persons' duties to an HSS. Because the department refuses to compensate our members for doing work outside of their classification, we declared impasse and are proceedin

On August 21, 2026, your 008 governing board met with DHA management to discuss their proposal to backfill the current HSQRS vacancy in General Assistance (GA) at Susie Gains with another HSS. Though the program is in dire need of more HSS to help offset the volume of intakes, the department is proposing the delegation of the HSQRS tasks to all of the HSS in GA. This would mean that HSS would be applying and removing sanctions and reviewing and processing monthly reports. The

Greetings, UPE Family! On August 20, 2026, your UPE bargaining team met with Labor Relations and the Department of Health Services, Public Health Division regarding the revision of the Employee Safety Policy. After the meeting, UPE determined that the revision of the policy had little to no impact on the membership. There were small grammatical and formatting issues that need to be addressed prior to publishing and implementation. UPE requested to receive a copy of the final

Greetings, Union Brothers and Sisters, On August 13, 2026, your 008 board met with DHA management to follow up on the implementation of ABAWD. Clients are now receiving letters saying that their CalFresh is ending, and workers have not received the info needed to provide clients with how to meet their work requirements and/or receive exemptions. Additionally, training was not conducted in the manner we were told it would, leaving workers unprepared. We made several proposal

Greetings UPE Family! On August 5, 2026, your UPE bargaining team met with Labor Relations and Employment Services regarding the Child Development Specialist Class Study. Previously, the CDS I and II classes were separate and had a one (1) year probationary period; they are now tied together as CDS I/II, as all other classifications that have a level I and II are, and the probationary period is now six (6) months. This creates a clearer pathway for CDS I’s to promote to C

Your 008-negotiation team met with the department regarding their proposal to yet again add more duties to our HSS members. Since the implementation of Cal Saws, eligibility cases have been plagued with the creation of duplicate persons. Sometimes this can cause complications under limited circumstances. Since the discovery of this issue, the department has had a program specialist resolving these cases. In what is becoming a predictable pattern, the department decides to red

Greetings, Union Sisters and Brothers, On August 6th, 2026, your UPE 008 board members met with DHA management to continue our discussion on Welfare-to-Work (WTW) sanction and exempt cases. After 45 days, sanction cases will go to the continuing case bank, and exempt cases will go to the continuing bank after 90 days. If, after 90 days, staff still want to monitor their case, they can let their supervisor know. This will help to reduce staff handoffs and additional work whe

UPE met and conferred with Sacramento County regarding its proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy and updates to the Wireless Communication Devices Policy. As a result of UPE's advocacy, the following employee protections were included in the Wireless Communication Devices Policy: * Employee Privacy: County-issued wireless devices will not be used to monitor or track employees, and any location data associated with the devices will not be used for disciplinary purposes.

On June 26, 2026, your 008 board and subject matter experts met with the department concerning their proposal that the County Duplicate Impact List (CDIL) be the work of eligibility workers. UPE’s position is that this is not HSS's duty, and we are continuing to advocate for this. Additional research is being done by our team to determine how other counties in the state are processing this duty. Another meeting will be scheduled soon, and we will keep you updated. UPE thanks

Greetings, Union Brothers and Sisters, Your 008 board and subject matter experts met with DHA on July 10, 2026, to discuss the process for sanctioning and exempting Welfare-to-Work (WTW) cases. After hearing concerns about workload balancing, the Department proposed moving sanctioned and exempt cases into a general bank. The goal is to prevent employees from having to monitor and carry cases that do not count toward their assigned caseload. Once a sanction is lifted or an exe

Greetings UPE Family! Tuesday, July 21, 2026, your UPE bargaining team met with the department regarding the current vacation restrictions. First things first, the department (so they say) has no clue as to when ILT for CARES will even start. They say that the state keeps pushing the date, even though the implementation date is still on track for October 26, 2026. They also say that vacations will be granted or denied by the supervisor on a case-by-case basis depending on t

On 7/17/26, your 008 board members met with DHA Fulton management to discuss the bureau absence reporting procedure. Staff had differing call-in times, some calling in 1 hour before their start time, some 30 minutes before, and some at 7:15 am. All of a sudden, they want everyone to call in at 7:15 am, when some people start at 9 am. This is unreasonable. We proposed that those at Fulton be able to call out 30 minutes prior to their shift. The department counter-proposed 1 ho

Greetings, union brothers and sisters, Your 008 negotiations team met with the department over the proposed implementation of a new process they are calling the (CDIL) County Duplicate Impact List. This is a list comprised of cases that have been identified as duplicates in the county of the Golden Record. The department states that they receive 60-70 cases per day with duplicate person(s) associated with it. There is a backlog of a few hundred cases that need to be process