CHICAGO-When on May 1st the Bruce Rauner administration unilaterally enacted new federal overtime rules for home healthcare workers as an excuse to cut services for people with disabilities, it violated the law.

That is the substance of an Unfair Labor Practices charge (attached) filed Thursday by SEIU Healthcare Illinois, the union representing 24,000 state personal assistants.

About 9,000 people with disabilities are affected by the rules changes, which have thrown the system of care in disarray. Rauner has tried to use implementation of the new rules in negotiations in which he is attempting to strip wages, training and health insurance from caregivers.

Following is the statement of SEIU Healthcare Illinois Vice President Terri Harkin:

“The heartless new Rauner overtime policy is a perversion of federal rules meant to ensure that workers are paid for their work and it has been every bit as bad as we feared. In only a few days, we have found that hundreds of people with disabilities who rely on care for their everyday needs have been placed in harm’s way by a policy that has nothing to do with saving taxpayer dollars OR preventing fraud, the governor’s all-of-a-sudden rationale. Rauner has used the federal policy in a bait-and-switch that will hurt seniors and people with disabilities, using them as pawns to take away wages, training and health insurance from the people who care for them.

“In unilaterally implementing the new cap and throwing the system of care in disarray, the Rauner administration has violated the law. But this is not just illegal policy: It hurts people with disabilities.”

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