Dec 22, 2007  
Bargaining – 12/20/07
 
ESL, PTO and cashing out PTO

Today, management presented their counter-proposal on Article 21: PTO and ESL; they stuck with the status quo. Management also tries to box us in by what the CNA (RNs) Union has in their contract. Charlie, our chief negotiator, says the administration isn’t proposing anything more than what the law requires.

ESL
As for ESL, the administration says that after 3 days of PTO, ESL kicks in for 3 days and then PTO again after that. The union wants to up the use of ESL, in this case to 5 days from 3, so employees won’t have to use so much of their PTO.

Our bargaining team is working to increase our ESL hours. The union would have ESL cap at 720 hours; management wants the ESL cap to stay at 400 hours. The union then brought up the possibility of converting 100 ESL hours to PTO after the ESL cap is reached. Then ESL could be built up again to 400 saving employees from losing any PTO. Management chose the status quo.

PTO
Most people don’t find themselves reaching their maximum number of hours of PTO, so we are leaving that cap as is; management also claimed it would not deny PTO unreasonably.

Management said that PTO is based on 80 hours a pay period for full- and regular part-time employees based on straight time worked. The union asked to drop the "straight time worked" wording because of the 80 hours a pay period covering PTO and ESL hours. On unpaid time off, management wouldn’t allow it until all of an employee's PTO is used up. The union wants unpaid time off to kick in when 96 hours of PTO is reached allowing employees to save some of their PTO for vacation when they need it.

The bargaining team proposed three new holidays:
  • Martin Luther King’s Day
  • Caesar Chavez’ Day
  • The Employee’s Birthday (now lumped in with the rest of PTO)
This would make for 11 holidays in all. Management proposed, again, the status quo with only the current 8 holidays.

The union's accrual of PTO for years served is different from management's. Again ours is higher than theirs.

       • PTO Accrual •
  -------Union's-------.........-- Administration's--
  Years.............................Years.......................
   0-2....=....27 days..............0-4....=....24 days
   3-4....=....34.......................5-6....=....29
  ....5....=....37......................7-10....=  ....34
  ....6.... =....38...................11-15....=  ....35
  ....7....=....39......................> 15....=....36
  ....8....=....40
  ....9....=....41
  ..10....=....42

CASH OUT
The union also proposed 100% of an employee's PTO be cashed out, but the hospital stuck with their 90% saying it was an IRS requirement having to do with taxes that could be incurred on other PTO left in the bank. Their reasoning was confusing and not well explained. Charlie called the union’s lawyer who said the Enloe administration's interpretation was narrow, and that the ruling could be interpreted more broadly. We stuck with our 100% proposal.

We will give the union’s counter proposal on the above at the next session on January 15, 2008. Try to come by, though we know how difficult management makes that by not allowing the negotiations to be held at the Esplanade Building, where they could actually save the hospital money by using those free meeting rooms. Go figure. Status quo.

Our bargaining team again would like to thank everyone – employee and community member alike – for their support of our efforts to get them Industry Standards: better wages and benefits, and better patient care. We love seeing the "union label," and truly appreciate those wearing lanyards, buttons and badges.

See you all next year, when we will, of course, have even more information.

PC