Details re: Our 8/26 Economic Proposal
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Below is a more detailed version of our last economic proposal to OHSU. Several confidential supposals were exchanged between the parties, over the course of a week that included more than 40 hours of mediation, prior to our team making this proposal. (OHSU’s last public proposal can be viewed here.)
We’ve included PDFs of some of the proposals, but for some proposals the actual contract language hasn’t been written yet, and for others the details are still being discussed with the employer. We may not be able to fully answer everyone’s questions in the comments and ask for your patience — we’ll be scheduling more member forums, including some for specific employee groups, as soon as possible.
Across-the-Board Increases:
Year 1 - 8%
Year 2 - 7%
Year 3 - 7%
Our team recognizes that holding firm on ATBs is our membership’s highest priority.
Ratification Bonus (to be paid the first full pay period after ratification):
If we settle by 9/5/22: $1,000 for employees at 0.5 – 1.0 FTE, $500 for employees at 0 – 0.49 FTE.
If we settle between 9/6/22 and 10/5/22: $1,500 for employees at 0.5 – 1.0 FTE, $750 for employees at 0 – 0.49 FTE.
A calculator comparing the two parties’ ATB proposals and the impact of a ratification bonus vs. lump-sum payment of retro ATBs can be found here.
Progression within Quartiles: These will remain at 4% for the first quartile, 2.75% for the second, 2% for the third and 1.5% for the fourth.
Longevity Increase: We’ve proposed striking the word “consecutive” from this language, so that employees who are knocked out of the top of the pay scale after a period receive credit for that time (e.g., if they were topped out for three years, they would only need to be topped out for another two years before receiving the longevity rate).
Merit-Based Adjustments: We all know that merit increases are almost never given to members of our bargaining unit. In many cases, employees who request one are incorrectly told by managers that our contract prevents them from providing a merit increase. This proposal simply clarifies that employees may ask for merit increases and that our contract does allow them.
Market-Based Adjustments/MOU re: Recommendations to the Market Based Wage Committee: We’ve proposed increasing the size of the MBWC and made adjustments to the language describing how the committee conducts its reviews. This package proposal can be viewed here.
Promotion/Upward Reclassification: We’ve proposed that employees retain their original anniversary date upon promotion or upward reclassification, but withdrew our proposal for a minimum pay increase of 5% instead of the current 4%.
Shift Differential:
Evening: Increase to 7% or $1.50/hour, whichever is greater.
Night: Increase to 12.5% or $3.00/hour, whichever is greater
Hazards Package: We’ve proposed a $1.00/hour differential for pharmacy technicians who mix chemotherapy drugs and a $0.50/hour differential for West Campus employees who handle hazardous waste. We’ve also proposed that the employer provide a yearly opportunity for medical monitoring for those employees who work with certain dangerous materials. This proposal would also allow employees who are exposed to serious communicable disease at work to be placed on paid administrative leave during their quarantine period. This package proposal can be viewed here.
Lead Work: This differential will remain at 5%.
Weekend Differential: We’ve proposed increasing this differential from $0.50/hour to $1.50/hour.
Unforeseen Environmental Hazard Differential: We withdrew this proposal to ensure that more funds are available for higher ATBs.
Preceptor Pay: This differential will remain at $1.00/hour. The number of classifications eligible for the differential will be greatly increased — the specific list is still being determined. We’ve also proposed that employees in classifications not included in the final list have a mechanism to request preceptor pay.
Recognized Holidays: We’ve proposed that Juneteenth be added to our list of holidays (and recognize that OHSU will likely do this for all employees once bargaining ends). We withdrew our request for Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be added—unfortunately, this is an area that the OHSU team will not move on. Instead, we’ve asked for an MOU for the parties to meet to discuss a future floating cultural holiday. This is something that at least one member of OHSU leadership has expressed an interest in, so we hope the employer is open to this discussion.
Compensation for Work-Unit Holiday Closures: We’ve proposed new language that will allow employees to request to adjust their schedule or float to an open work area if their own work unit is closed around a holiday (e.g., the day after Thanksgiving).
Accrual of Vacation Time: We withdrew our proposal for faster VAC accruals so that the funds would be available for higher ATBs. (The employer has stated that our proposal would have cost the equivalent of a 1.8% ATB raise each year.) We didn’t include any additional VAC days in our proposal, for the same reason.
Accrual of Sick Leave: We’ve proposed 20 additional hours of SIK. Our bargaining unit hasn’t seen an increase in sick time in almost a quarter of a century, and in the pandemic era, our employees need more time to care for themselves and their family members. While OHSU states that the current COVID hours will remain available, the fact is that they could be pulled at any time, and our members need additional sick time for reasons other than COVID. We’ve also asked OHSU to work with us to rewrite the employer’s attendance policy, so that workers are disciplined for abusing sick time and not for simply using it as intended.
Attendance Recognition: This proposal would change the SIK-to-VAC incentive for good attendance from a 2:1 conversion to a 1:1 conversion, as follows:
0 unscheduled sick days per calendar year: convert up to 24 hours of SIK to up to 24 hours of VAC
1 unscheduled sick day per calendar year: convert up to 16 hours of SIK to up to 16 hours of VAC
2 unscheduled sick days per calendar year: convert up to 8 hours of SIK to up to 8 hours of VAC
Bereavement Leave: 20 hours of paid bereavement leave per year.
Insurance Employer Contribution: OHSU will continue to contribute 100% for employee-only coverage and 88% for all other tiers. Benefit dollars will be offered in three separate pools (medical, dental, vision), instead of one.
Education & Training Hours: Employees will be guaranteed 24 hours of job-related training (prorated per FTE) each contract year, up from the current 10 hours. Employees on an individual development plan will be guaranteed 30 hours instead of the current 15.
Additional Work/Overtime/ANI/Mandatory OT: Our proposals for these sections of the contract are still being worked out; we’ve let the management team know that we’re open to discussing this in subcommittee. In summary:
Voluntary overtime (paid at 1.5X) would be offered to full-time employees first. If there are no takers,
Additional work (paid at 1.5X) would be offered to all employees in the department. This will hopefully incentivize part-time and flex employees to pick up shifts and provide some relief to full-timeers. If there are no takers,
ANI is declared for everyone at 25% or $10.00/hour, whichever is greater. Lastly, if the shift is still open,
Mandatory overtime would be assigned, paid at 2X plus $150.00.
Appendix A — Contract Variations for Salaried Employees: Please click here for the full version of our current Appendix A proposal. We are also proposing an LOA to establish limits to excessive on-call work and excessive overtime for select departments where salaried employees are experiencing significant abuse in these areas (while not changing the current contract language in a way that would be problematic for departments that need flexibility in these areas); this will include an option for other work units to be included in the LOA based on metrics established by both parties. This LOA is still being developed, so the actual contract language is not currently available.
MOU #8: Paid Family/Medical/Safe Leave: We’ve proposed that the employer “pick-up” 80% of the total contribution (employee + employer) to Paid Leave Oregon. We withdrew our proposal for three weeks of paid parental leave to be offered during the period between ratification and the 9/3/23 effective date of Paid Leave Oregon. The MOU can be viewed here.
We hope that the above details provide clarification for our members.