The UAPD Bargaining Team met with representatives from the State of California for the third time on Monday, June 23, 2008. The following topics were among those discussed:
- Continuing Medical Education (CME) — UAPD proposed that the annual CME funding be increased from $1000 to $1300 in 2009, and that, starting immediately upon ratification, all CME money would be paid automatically to each doctor every year. Under our proposal, Doctors would no longer endure the lengthy and uncertain process of requesting reimbursement from the State. The State Team indicated that it would address our CME proposal closer to the end of bargaining, when both sides will negotiate over economic issues.
- Discipline of State Doctors — UAPD proposed that the State notify the Union upon launching an investigation of any Doctor, then update the Union every 90 days for as long as the investigation remains open.
- State Disability – Last week representatives of the State of California gave a presentation on the State Disability Insurance (SDI) Program. This week, State representatives gave a presentation on the Non-Industrial Insurance Program (NDI) to which State Doctors currently belong. The UAPD Bargaining Team is comparing the two plans to decide which better serves the needs of our members, and will update members about its conclusions in the coming weeks.
- Outside Contractors – The UAPD Team continues to push the State to provide information about contractors doing bargaining unit work.
Last week the State advanced several proposals to slightly modify some contract language, and proposed that both sides agree to maintain a number of other articles without changes. After careful consideration, this week the UAPD Team agreed to some of the minor “clean up” that the State had proposed, and we agreed to roll over some articles that we intend not to change. We also proposed some minor “clean up” of language ourselves, including a clarification of the use of State equipment like e-mail by UAPD stewards.
Bargaining resumes on Wednesday, July 9, 2008.