More than 3,500 home care workers averted a strike last week when their union reached a contract agreement with one agency and came to a tentative understanding on a contract with another.

Negotiators for 1199SEIU signed a 14-month deal with Prestige Care Inc. and reached a tentative agreement on contract terms with Bestcare Inc. Both deals will provide raises and, for the first time, health insurance.

The agreements come four years after the workers first joined the union, which represents workers in states including New York.

“These contract agreements are a significant step forward for our home health aides,” said 1199 president George Gresham. “After struggling for so many years caring for others, it is only right that they’re finally getting the wage increases and health benefits they deserve.”

The Prestige deal brings salaries up from minimum wage to $7.70 an hour, with an additional 10-cents-an-hour increase on October 1, 2009. Workers will get paid sick and bereavement days and increased holiday pay. Also, the agency will pay into the union’s health and education funds beginning in January.

Dan Ratner, a lawyer for the union, would not release details of the tentative agreement with Bestcare, but said the deal should be finalized in the first week of October. If it isn’t, workers will renew their call to strike, they said.

“If Bestcare fails to turn our tentative agreement into a signed contract, we are prepared to reissue our strike notice and take action to win the treatment we deserve,” said Linda Bertoni, who has worked for Bestcare for 14 years and earns the New York state minimum wage of $7.15 an hour.

Neither agency returned calls seeking comment.

Filed by Daniel Massey of Crain’s New York Business, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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