After declaring war on Tuesday, Kaiser dropped another bomb on us yesterday, with a PTO proposal that contained numerous takeaways, such as:
- Elimination of holiday pay for salaried employees if a Holiday falls on a regularly scheduled day off
- Reduction in holiday pay for hourly employees who are regularly scheduled to work on the day a Holiday falls
- Elimination of the ability to take another day of within 30 days in lieu of receiving Holiday pay
- Elimination of premium pay for working on a holiday, particularly affecting dedicated ED teams
- Restrictions on PTO use for those who are about to retire
- Limiting the use of PTO to the amount accrued annually, even if one has more in their PTO bank
- Holidays falling on a weekend would have another day designated by the employer as the Holiday
- A requirement to use PTO for partial day absences
- A requirement to get permission and “to ensure patient care needs are met” before taking a partial day absence
Needless to say, Kaiser management also rejected our proposals for adding the Juneteenth Holiday and improving the Extended Sick Leave benefit.
On our part, we gave Kaiser several revised proposals, even adopting their language in some, in an effort to move things forward. Our proposals covered areas such as Management Rights, Grievance and Arbitration Procedure, Corrective Action, Disputes, Seniority, Job Postings, Reduction in Force, Professional Practice Committees, and Union Representation. We also put forth three Tentative Agreements that simply change the term “Assistant” to “Associate” to reflect the actual job titles under the law, but their chief negotiator neglected to sign.
