Dozens of drivers traveling along Napa-Vallejo Highway late Monday morning were greeted by the sight of picketers lined up in front of the entrance to Napa State Hospital.

About 15 Napa State Hospital psychiatric technicians and others held signs reading “No more mandatory overtime shifts!” and “Quality care is our job — Give us what we need to do it!”

Workers are asking for higher wages and the end to mandatory overtime. The demonstration was part of a display scheduled to take place Monday at all five state mental hospitals — Napa, Atascadero, Coalinga, Metropolitan in Norwalk and Patton in San Bernardino.

Brad Leggs, 52, said he has been a Napa State employee for 18 years. Leggs is also the chapter president for the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians. “The big issue is about equal pay with the Department of Corrections. We’ve lost a lot of employees who are going there,” he said.

The demonstration comes as state hospital employees are seeking increases in compensation to match conditions in the state’s prison system. Napa State Hospital psych techs earn salaries ranging from about $40,000 a year to $48,000. After a federal court ruling in 2006 forced the state to increase pay in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, psych techs at prisons now earn around $60,000.

Lawmakers, including state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, support an increase for workers in Napa and at the state’s other mental health facilities. The workers’ contract with the state expires in June of 2008.

Lupe Rincon, public information officer for Napa State Hospital, declined comment.

Kirsten Macintyre, a spokesperson for the state Department of Mental Health, said, “Informational pickets by unions aren’t uncommon during budget negotiations. It’s just a part of the process.”

Dangerous job

As a psychiatric technician at Napa State, Leggs said he faces dangers equal to or greater than prison workers, where inmates are brought in with three guards and staffing shortages are not as severe, he said. At Napa State, psych techs work with a population that includes people found mentally incompetent to stand trial and those who have been deemed not guilty of crimes by reason of insanity.

“If you’re in the prison, psych techs step back and officers step in. ... We’re watching the same people. Many are hurt here and across the state. ... We’ve had a lot of people seriously injured,” he said.

Leggs said he knows of at least 15 psychiatric technicians who have recently left Napa State for better-paying jobs.

“We expect that the governor and the Department of Mental Health (will) do the right thing,” he said.

Brady Oppenheim, 36, a consultant from the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians, said there are about 500 psychiatric technician vacancies throughout the state hospital system. State facilities’ licenses are in jeopardy when inadequate numbers of licensed staff are employed, according to Oppenheim.

Greg Russell, 41, an employee at Napa State Hospital, said he has been a senior psychiatric technician at various locations for 20 years.

He said if he doesn’t receive wages equal to those of psychiatric technicians in the prison system within 60 days, he will leave the hospital for a job with the state Department of Corrections.