UAPD Bargaining Unit 324 negotiations are slowly moving forward. Healthcare Reform may be the biggest social and economic development in decades, but the County has had little to say about a comprehensive strategy for recruitment and retention of Bu 324 doctors. How work is performed doesn’t appear to be a major management focus either. The UAPD Bargaining Team understands that these negotiations, and our future labor-management committees, must address how doctors have been so badly undermined by poor workplace conditions. There’s a Union consensus that management needs to include employee opinions and employee satisfaction as meaningful parts of their business plans.
Two months ago UAPD presented to the County a comprehensive and substantive salary proposal. The County claims to be thoroughly reviewing our proposal and vetting their response before presenting. Under Article 9 (Special Pay Practices), we have proposed increased standby compensation, a bonus for hard-to-recruit positions in the High Desert Health Systems, parity for MLK doctors, a bonus for detention and correctional facilities, and a percentage increase for the In-House-Physician-Registry.
Equally as important are the non-monetary proposals, which include enhanced legal protections for physicians who have a challenge to their medical license as a result of any e-Consult action.
Your bargaining team also proposed a new article entitled Professional Judgement, which states, ”the parties agree BU324 employees shall not practice, nor shall they be required to practice, in any manner which places their professional license(s) in jeopardy.”
The County has cancelled the last two scheduled bargaining sessions because they are not ready to respond to our salary proposal. UAPD and the County are scheduled to resume bargaining Wed. Jan 6 and Wed. Jan 13, 2016.