A complaint of unfair labor practices against Rock Island County will next go to an administrative law judge. That was the decision Thursday by the Illinois Labor Relations Board.
The union representing workers at the former Hope Creek Care Center in East Moline, AFSCME, filed the complaint because it believes the possible impact of the sale on employees of the county's nursing home should have been negotiated before the sale was approved.
Kimberly Stevens is Executive Director of the board.
"The board has not made a determination as to whether bargaining indeed should have taken place, just that AFSCME has raised issues of fact or law that require the board to have a hearing to flesh those things out further."
The sale of Hope Creek to Infinity Health Care closed just last week and affected about 200 jobs.
Stevens says an administrative law judge could hear the case within a few months, and then that decision would go to the Labor Relations Board for its consideration.