"Our patient care employees play a vital role in helping UC medical and student health centers deliver top-quality patient care, and we are pleased to have reached an agreement that recognizes their many important contributions to the university and to the state," said Shelley Nielsen, UC's chief negotiator for the contract. "We believe the agreement was a fair compromise and one that supports UC's goal of offering employees competitive wages and benefits."
The tentative agreement was reached Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008. Once ratified by the union, the agreement will be effective from the date of ratification through Sept. 30, 2012, and full contract details will be available at
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/employees/policies_employee_labor_relations/labor_relations.html
Highlights of the tentative agreement include:
Wages: $127 million in total wage increases over five years, equal to a minimum total of 26 percent for eligible employees, including over $18 million in wage increases ranging from 4 to 15 percent in the first year.
Health benefits: The same excellent health and retirement benefits as other UC employees, at the same cost, with UC paying the vast majority of the benefits costs. Due to a special one-time subsidy UC is employing for its 2009 health benefits, UC employees will see lower premium increases than they otherwise would, with some employees seeing decreases in their net monthly medical insurance premiums (details at http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/news/health/0810_health_rates.html).
UC is also attempting to settle a new contract with AFSCME regarding UC's more than 8,000 service employees and hopes a compromise agreement will be reached soon. Highlights of UC's current offer for service employees include:
Wages: $20.3 million in total wage increases over the next 27 months, including $11.3 million worth of increases in the first year and increases in minimum wages from $10.28 per hour to $13.25 per hour. Since bargaining began, UC has more than tripled its wage offer in the first year alone for service employees ($3.1 million in May; now at $11.3 million), and increased its total multiyear wage package by 25 percent (was $16.6 million in July; now at $20.3 million).
Health benefits: The same excellent health and retirement benefits as other UC employees, at the same cost, with UC paying the vast majority of the benefits costs. Due to a special one-time subsidy UC is employing for its 2009 health benefits, UC employees will see lower premium increases than they otherwise would, with some employees seeing decreases in their net monthly medical insurance premiums (details at http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/news/health/0810_health_rates.html).
Wages for patient care employees are supported by hospital revenues. Because state funding is UC's single largest source of funding for systemwide salaries, wages for service employees and other campus-based employee groups are impacted by the state budget.
UC and AFSCME began negotiations for patient care employees in August 2007 and for service employee groups in October 2007.
The University of California operates the nation's largest health sciences and medical training program, and its network of five medical centers and associated facilities represents the fifth-largest health care system in California, and one of the state's largest providers of health care to low-income, medically vulnerable patients. UC medical centers provide a high volume of quality care - each year, they see 137,000 inpatient discharges, 261,000 emergency room visits and 3.6 million outpatient visits. They provide a full range of health care services in their communities and are sites for the development and testing of new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.
For more information about these negotiations, go to: www.ucpatientcaretechs.com/index.php
For more news and information about the University of California, please visit: www.universityofcalifornia.edu