HPAE Local 5094 Professionals University Hospital Contract Update
On Monday, February 8th, we had our latest negotiation session with UH management. We presented a counter-proposal to management on their initial economic offer. In addition, we had some productive discussion on issues around our grievance procedure and management’s desire to be able to do drug testing on current employees. Management also presented yet another new proposal, this time regarding paying back UH for EPIC and other expensive trainings if you resign your employment within three years after receiving them.
Summary of some outstanding of the issues:
Wages: Management’s initial offer is $1000 bonus for FY 2014, 1% for FY 2015 and elimination of our steps. The Union’s most recent counter offer is a three-year deal (2014, 2015 & 2016) with one step movement per year and an across the board increase of 3.5% per year and a 2% bonus for those on the top step.
Overtime: The Union has a proposal on the table for comp time to be earned hour-for-hour after you reach the end of your scheduled shift. Management has denied this proposal.
Education Differential: The Union has a proposal on the table to allow for a $3000/yr bump in salary if a worker has a higher degree in his/her field than is required by the job description. Management has denied this proposal.
Shift Differential: Allow for the night shift differential to be applied to ALL hours actually worked after 3 pm. Management has denied this proposal.
Tuition Refund: The Union is looking to increase the tuition refund to $5000/yr. Management has so far denied this proposal.
On Call: The Union wants all members who are on call to be provided an hourly rate (regardless of whether or not they are salaried or hourly) and comp time for any time a salaried member is actually called in. Management has so far denied this proposal.
Drug Testing: Management wants to be able to mandate drug testing for those employees deemed “impaired” while at work. We raised many concerns over their initial proposal. They have responded to many of those concerns and the ball is now in our court.
Background Checks: Management wants the ability to do a criminal background check on any of us, at any time during our employment. Our response has been a solid no to this massive intrusion on our members’ privacy.
FMLA: Management wants to significantly reduce the amount of time our members can take in the case of a medical illness or care of a loved one. They also want to significantly increase the amount of time one must work at UH prior to being eligible for this benefit. So far we have refused this proposal.
We pushed management on getting all of their proposals on the table for the next session. We know they still want to make proposals regarding inclement weather and benefit time. We need to have these proposals on the table to be able to really narrow down the issues and achieve a fair contract.