Labor Relations

UW IHME – SEIU 925 Negotiations Recap for November 2 and November 7, 2023

This recap details the fifth and sixth virtual sessions for the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the UW IHME and SEIU 925. Recaps are published online on the UW Labor Relations website.

Tentative Agreements

The parties tentatively agreed to the following articles:

  • Article 2 – Non-Discrimination
    • The parties agreed to add “citizenship” to the list of protected classes.
  • Article 14 – Information on Grants and Proposals
    • The parties agreed that the HUB page, which tracks grant and proposal information, will be updated on a monthly basis.
  • Article 15 – Classification and Reclassification
    • The parties agreed to add language detailing that a position review requires a current performance evaluation, in accordance with current practice.
  • Article 22 – Federal Family Medical Leave Act and Parental Leave
    • The parties agreed to update the family member definition to include a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor child, to align with the FMLA.
  • Article 25 – Unpaid Holidays for a Reason of Faith or Conscience
    • The parties agreed to add holiday credit as acceptable to use in lieu of unpaid time off, in accordance with current practice.
  • Article 26 – Civil/Jury Duty and Bereavement Leave
    • The parties agreed to expand language detailing reasons for bereavement time off to include the stillbirth or miscarriage of a child.
  • Article 28 – Military Leave
    • The parties agreed to add personal holiday as an available type of paid time off that can be utilized during military duty leave, in accordance with current practice.
  • Article 30 – Reasonable Accommodations of Employees with Disabilities
    • The parties agreed to include holiday credit as acceptable to use for disability leave.
    • The parties also agreed to add several pregnancy-related accommodations to the list of accommodations that shall not require health care provider certification and are not subject to an Employer’s claim of undue hardship, including providing reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk or breastfeed and providing lactation spaces to be used by an employee to express milk.

The parties tentatively agreed to the following articles with minor housekeeping and language edits only:

  • Article 21 – Washington Family Medical Leave Program
  • Article 29 – Work Related Injury Leave
  • Article 43 – Exit Interviews
  • Article 45 – Union Activities, Rights, and Stewards

Union Counter Proposals

Article 12 – Professional Development – The Union’s counterproposal stated that employees would be encouraged to use up to 10% of their regular work time on innovation related to research goals or current deliverables, including researching, learning, discussions, and experimentation.

Side Letter D – Innovation Time –  In response to the Employer’s counterproposal to include language that would require the Employer to continue to develop funding proposals and update the Union upon receipt of funding, the Union counter-proposed to include language that would require the parties to meet before April 1 of each year of the contract to discuss potential opportunities for proposals.

Article 13 – Hiring, Promotions, and Transfers – In response to the Employer, the Union’s counterproposal would require a 10-day minimum time period for notices of vacant bargaining unit positions to be made available in places intended to reach bargaining unit employees.

The Union counterproposal also includes a provision that after any affirmative discussion between an employee and supervisor regarding promotion via position review or application, the employee would receive a follow-up communication in writing within 2 weeks.

The Union also reasserted its prior proposal to increase the percentage of IHME employee salaries to make up the promotion and in-grade salary pool from 1% to at least 3% in March 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Additionally, the Union counter-proposed to include a provision requiring employees to be notified of changes made to guidelines for annual promotions and in-grade adjustments.

Employer Counter Proposals

Article 23 – Parental Leave – In response to the Union, the Employer rejected the Union’s proposal for twelve weeks of University paid parental leave and reasserted its initial proposal to capture existing parental leave provisions in accordance with current University policy.

MOU – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – The parties are in agreement to convert this MOU into a new article. The Employer counter-proposed to include more specific language regarding engagement in DEI activities, including that time spent contributing to the DEI Council and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) would be considered work time. The Employer also counter-proposed updating language referencing affinity groups to instead reference Employee Resource Groups. In response to the Union’s proposal that supervisors would work with their employees to accommodate DEI-related work, the Employer proposed language stating that supervisors would work with their employees to accommodate such activities, as possible. In response to the Union’s proposed language that IHME would encourage affinity groups to report on their work during Town Hall meetings and/or during the employee’s annual performance review, and that IHME would continue to create and maintain a pool of funds for affinity group initiatives, the Employer’s counter proposal stated that IHME would encourage ERGs to report on their activities during Town Hall meetings, and would recognize the contributions of community leaders during Town Hall meetings and/or during the organizational citizenship component of the employee’s annual performance review. The Employer also proposed that IHME would maintain a budget of funds for ERG initiatives as funding allows.

New Side Letter X – Utility Outages – In response to the Union’s counterproposal on Article 32 – Inclement Weather and Suspended Operations, the Employer counter-proposed to create a new Side Letter to address scenarios where the University is in operation, but an employee is faced with local unanticipated utility outages. Under this proposed new Side Letter, employees would work with their supervisors to adjust job duties and/or deadlines in the event of utility outages impacting their ability to work. The Employer’s proposed Side Letter also states that employees experiencing utility outages due to inclement weather should follow the applicable University Inclement Weather or Suspended Operations Policy.

Next Steps

The next UW IHME and SEIU 925 bargaining session is scheduled for November 28, 2023 and will be held virtually.