Protecting Workers’ Rights and Patient Care

Worker protections and patient care ultimately go hand-in-hand. Our members work tirelessly to deliver high quality services despite the many obstacles presented in their respective lines of work. This year, AFSCME highlighted the extraordinary challenges that our Local 2620 state psychologists face everyday while providing life-saving care. AFSCME members in these professions faced a serious lack of worker protections which compromised their ability to enjoy dignity on the job. Thanks to the efforts of Assemblymember Evan Low (author of AB 1456, the State Psychologist Licensure bill), commonsense worker protection policies were heard in the California State Legislature to help our members receive the basic rights and protections they deserve. 

State psychologists from AFSCME Local 2620 show no bounds to their commitment to delivering quality patient care and mental health services in state hospitals across California. Regardless of this, many of our members were at grave risk of losing their jobs as state psychologists due to difficulties meeting the historic three-year licensing requirement. State hospitals began to see high vacancy rates as a result - some institutions with vacancy rates as high as 50 percent due to not being able to retain qualified staff.

To address this urgent problem, AFSCME California worked with AFSCME Local 2620 to introduce AB 1456, authored by Assemblymember Low, to extend the timeline for state psychologists to obtain their license from three years to five years. Most other mental health professionals working in the state (Marriage and Family Therapists, Professional Clinical Counselors and Licensed Clinical Social Workers) are allotted a five-year time-frame to obtain licensure. Giving psychologists a similar time-frame serves to not only improve staff retention, but allow state agencies to continue to provide exceptional patient care services.

Most of all, this allows our hardworking members to retain their employment status and benefits. Prior to the enactment of this law, our members reported the immense challenges of continuing to work full-time, study and attend to family obligations while trying to meet this three year timeline for licensing. One of our members had this to say about her experience during the process:

“Due to a number of issues out of my control such the seven months it took the Board of Psychology to approve me to sit for my first of two exams, in addition to unexpected and serious medical interferences, I still had one exam to pass and one month to go before I was scheduled to be terminated. If it wasn't for the diligence of AFSCME, I would not only lose my job next month but I would lose the team of specialists I have worked very closely with in stabilizing my medical health. ” -- Dr. T. Engels, Staff Psychologist, California State Prison – Los Angeles County  

AB 1456 was signed into law by the Governor on July 31, 2017.