RFPU – UW Negotiations Recap for Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Background
This recap details the fourth virtual session for the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the University of Washington and the Resident and Fellow Physicians Union (RFPU). Recaps are published online on the UW Labor Relations website.
Tentative Agreements
The parties tentatively agreed to the following:
Article 11 – Washington Family Medical Leave Program (PFML)
- This article outlines the use of PFML by Residents and the Employer.
- Most changes were housekeeping in nature except for one line where types of time off were explicitly listed as available to supplement PFML. These types are vacation time off, sick time off, and personal holiday.
RFPU Counter Proposals
Dues Deduction – The Union proposed that the Employer would provide instructions and templates for the web based electronic reporting system and that the Employer would provide a calendar of required payroll cut-off dates. The Union would transmit the name and employee ID number of any employees who have provided authorization for deduction of dues or validly revoked authorization for deduction.
Vacation Definition – In response to the Employer’s proposal that a vacation day would be one continuous twenty-four hour period free from all administrative, clinical, and educational activities, the Union proposed that a vacation day would be a calendar day off (12:00 am to 11:59pm) and that a vacation day must be requested by the individual Resident.
Parental Leave and Family and Medical Leave – In response to the Employer’s proposal that if an employee had exhausted all sick time off and had less than seven days of available vacation time off, at the end of the first six weeks of the first approved leave of absence taken, the Employer would add the difference between the remaining balance and seven days of vacation time off to the employee’s balance the Union countered that this would apply to each approved leave and that this would consider if an employee had less than twenty-one days of combined vacation and sick time off.
UW Counter Proposals
GMEC and GMEC Policy Subcommittee – In response to the Union’s proposal to specify committee participants as RFPU-NW members, the Employer proposed instead that participants would be residents who are in the RFPU-NW bargaining unit.
Committee Substitutions – In response to the Union’s proposal to strike 24 hours’ notice for substitutions, the Employer proposed that advance notice would be required instead.
New Employee Contact Information – The Employer proposed keeping May 1st as the latest day in which the Employer would send New Employee Contact Information to RFPU. The Employer also added the language “or as soon as available” in the hopes that they could get this information to RFPU earlier than May 1st. This was in response to the Union’s proposal to obtain this information by April 1st.
GME Orientation – The Employer proposed that the 60 minutes of time allotted to RFPU at the end of the annual new resident and fellow orientation could be virtual or in person.
Housestaff Advisory Committee Composition – In response to the Union’s proposal to allow up to twenty members of the RFPU collective bargaining unit the Employer has proposed increasing from three to six.
Email, Fax Machines, the Internet, and Intranets – In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer did not accept the replacing of “as provided in this agreement” with “in manners that comply with Executive Board rules” because the Employer believed this would allow for continued disagreement on compliance. Additionally, this section of Article 25 already lists how such use would be acceptable.
Staff Representatives – In response to the Union’s proposal to strike “and shall not interfere with patient care or normal operations” the Employer declined to accept.
Complaints – In response to the Union’s proposal to allow for 180 days to file a grievance based on discrimination the Employer was inclined to accept. Additionally, the Employer proposed that when a grievance or complaint was filed the University would implement interim measures as appropriate; also, as suggested by the Union.
Reporting Tools – The Employer proposed adding links to report bias via GME, UW Medicine, and University Wide to Article 20: Non-Discrimination.
Next Steps
The next RFPU and UW bargaining session is scheduled for Wednesday, March 9 and will be held virtually.