Contract accord reached with Worcester co. and 250 homecare workers
About 250 health care workers at Medical Resources Home Health Corp. have reached a tentative agreement with company executives to boost wages, provide new training options and make additional benefits available to workers, the workers' union announced Tuesday.
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East said the roughly 250 unionized private homecare workers at Medical Resources will receive an immediate wage increase of at least 99 cents per hour and some will see raises as great as $2.52 an hour as part of the two-year contract.
"This first contract provides workers at Medical Resources a much-needed wage boost, access to new training opportunities and other essential benefits that will enhance care and improve the lives of these dedicated caregivers," 1199SEIU Executive Vice President Tyrék Lee said in a statement.
Workers at Medical Resources will also have access to the 1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund, a labor-management partnership that helps workers access new training and post-secondary certificate or degree programs, according to the union.
The employees will also begin to be paid for their travel and waiting time between appointments, which the union said had previously been covered by stipends that "fell far below" required wages for on-the-job travel. They will also receive at least five paid days off per year.
The two-year contract, which workers are expected to vote to ratify in coming weeks, was negotiated in three languages, accommodating the large number of Chinese and Latino workers at Medical Resources, the union said.
In announcing the contract with Medical Resources, 1199SEIU celebrated it as the latest in a line of successes for the union. In the last year, the union has reached contracts securing a $15 an hour minimum wage for health care workers at Boston Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess-Plymouth and the state's 35,000 personal care attendants.
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