A lockout is looming for some 200 home care workers in Hamilton and Halton.

A release from the union representing them says management at St. Joseph's Home Care has set a deadline of midnight Wednesday night.

Service Employes International Local 1 President Sharleen Stewart says workers have been told they will be locked out as of 12:01am Thursday if they don't agree to a pay cut of three-dollars-an-hour -- effectively taking them to 14-dollars-an-hour.

But St. Joseph's Home Care President Kim Ciavarella says the deal on the table does not affect current or future employees of current programs.

She tells CHML's Bill Kelly the proposed wage reductions would only affect possible expansion programs.

Stewart is nervous about a possible lockout because she says replacement workers would be hired off the street, which could put client care in jeopardy.

Ciavarella, however, is confident a deal will be reached when talks resume tomorrow (Wednesday).