Gov. Tom Wolf’s executive order on home health care workers is an example of politics at its worst.

The Feb. 27 order, the subject of two lawsuits filed against it in Commonwealth Court on Monday, will help labor unions organize independent caregivers, some of them relatives, who are hired directly by low-income elderly or disabled people to provide care in their homes.

There are three parts to the governor’s order. The first creates a seven-member advisory group with the ostensible goal of improving the quality of in-home care. There’s nothing wrong with taking a serious look at how the best care can be supplied. The state has a big stake in home care, given Pennsylvania’s growing population of frail elderly citizens, and it is significantly less expensive if individuals can remain in their own homes and get the help they need there instead of moving to nursing homes, assisted living facilities or other institutions. Since that’s what many individuals prefer anyway, home care is a win-win.

The two other directives in the governor’s order, however, read like a gift to organized labor, particularly the Service Employees International Union, among the big supporters in Mr. Wolf’s gubernatorial campaign. His order says that any organization that wins the backing of at least 10 percent of the independent caregivers who are compensated through the state will be designated as their representative to set working conditions and salaries. It further says the state Human Services secretary must compile a list of names of caregivers monthly and give them to any union that asks for them.

It’s true that the order says it does not give the workers the status of state employees and does not create a collective bargaining contract, but it comes close, and there was no reason — other than political allegiance — for Mr. Wolf to go there.

Agencies employ the bulk of Pennsylvania’s home health care workers, and they already are eligible for union representation. But the independent care workers, an estimated 12,000 people, are hired by the individuals they serve and often are relatives, neighbors or friends. The very nature of their relationships are different from, say, an hourly worker in an institutional setting.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell issued a similar executive order in 2010, but he withdrew it after a court challenge similar to the one filed this week. Mr. Wolf should do the same.

First Published: April 9, 2015, 4:00 a.m.