University of Washington Human Resources

WFSE – UW Negotiations Recap for Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Background
This recap details the fifth virtual session for the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the University of Washington and WFSE. Recaps are published online on the UW Labor Relations website.

Milliman Classified Staff Salary Study – Milliman, a third-party Consulting firm, presented an analysis of how the compensation for both healthcare and non-healthcare classified benchmark jobs compares to market.

Tentative Agreements

Article 2 – Non-Discrimination
The parties agreed that a grievance alleging a violation of this provision could be filed within 90 days of the alleged occurrence. Additionally, the parties agreed to include language that this grievance must contain the information required by Article 6.5 of this agreement.

Article 15 – Inter-System Movement and Transfer
The parties agreed to expand the types of appointments that would count towards mounts of service toward a higher vacation accrual rate. This expansion, which already included time spent in classified service, would now also include time spent in non-academic appointments.

UW Proposals

In response to the Union’s proposals, the Employer proposed to maintain current contract language on the following provisions:

• Article 12 – Licensure and Certification
• Article 17 – Vacations
• Article 26 – Civil Duty Time Off and Bereavement Time Off
• Article 33 – Transportation and Commute Trip Reduction
• Side Letter B – Public Transportation Delays

Article 6 – Grievance Procedure
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer reasserted their July 18 proposal. Additionally, in response to the Union’s June 18 proposal, the Employer countered by proposing that when a mediation or arbitration hearing were scheduled during normal business hours, the Union must submit a release request to their supervisor for approval. If the request is approved, the employee assigned to an evening or night shift would be released from their duties the day before or the night of the meeting for the hours required to participate in the mediation or arbitration hearing, for a maximum of eight hours. If the time spent in the mediation or arbitration hearing was less than their regularly scheduled shift time, the employee will use paid time off or leave without pay to fulfill their required hours of work.

Article 7 – Employee Rights
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer proposed that if investigatory meeting notice was provided after 12pm, the day after would be the first of the three-day notice period to secure union representation.

Article 9 – Hours of Work and Work Schedules
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer rejected the inclusion of the seven minute clock-in and/or clock-out window language. Additionally, the Employer accepted most of the Union’s proposed language on Alternative Work Schedules while maintaining the broad language that an employee could request this change based on a wide variety of needs.

Article 30 – Work Related Injury Leave
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer proposed to increase the amount of months of unpaid status due to a work-related injury where the employee would maintain their seniority and progression start date from six to nine months.

Article 34 – Performance Evaluation
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer proposed to provide a copy of a performance evaluation when requested and that it could include the employee’s rebuttal and/or comments if any.

Article 39 – Resignation and Abandonment
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer accepted the inclusion of Workday as an example of Employee Self-Service.

Article 43 – Joint Union/Management Committees
In response to the Union’s proposal, the Employer did not accept the increase in departmental level and university-wide level attendees. However, the Employer did agree that upon mutual agreement, both parties may include additional members as subject matter experts.

Article 55 – Contract Publication
In response to the Union’s concern, the Employer proposed adjusting the link to the contract agreement so that the word master is replaced with primary.

Appendix I – Job Classifications
The Employer proposed cleaning up the table so that the full job classification title was included and proposed to inactivate some job classifications that hadn’t been used in seven years.

Appendix III – Overtime Exempt Job Classifications
The Employer proposed cleaning up the table so that the full job classification title was included, as mentioned previously, and to include a job classification that was not included in the previous agreement.

Appendix V – Pay Tables
The Employer proposed to strike the mentioning on the pay table BK because it is inactivated, and this housekeeping cleanup was just missed these past few rounds.

MOU – Trades Apprenticeship Program
In response to the union’s proposal, the Employer reasserted to keep this MOU and replace the dates and content with the version that was presented on July 31.

MOU – UW Medicine Pre-Scheduled Voluntary Double-Time Shift Incentive
The Employer proposed striking this MOU in its entirety.

Side Letter A – City of Seattle Minimum Wage
The Employer proposed to rollover this MOU.

WFSE Counter Proposals

On the following provisions, the Union proposed to maintain their previous proposal:

• Article 12 – Licensure and Certification
• Article 17 – Vacations

Article 6 – Grievance Procedure
6.5
In response to the Employer’s proposal, the Union proposed that including the language of a description of the events that resulted in the alleged violation would be adequate for the purposes of the grievance filing. The Union also proposed that the Employer could not arbitrarily delay scheduling a grievance.
Step Four: Arbitration
In response to the Employer’s proposal, the Union could not agree to the proposed language regarding arbitration scheduling timelines.
Mediation and Arbitration Hearing
In response to the Employer’s proposal, the Union countered that when a mediation or arbitration hearing are scheduling during the Employer’s normal business hours, the Union would submit a release request to Labor Relations for approval and the employee would inform their supervisor. If the request was approved, the employee assigned to an evening or night shift would be released from their duties with pay for both the work shift before and after for their total work shift hours. Also, that if the time spent was less than their regularly scheduled shift time, the employee would not be required to use paid time off or leave without pay to fulfill their required hours of work but may elect to voluntarily report to work after the mediation or arbitration hearing.

Article 7 – Employee Rights
In response to the Employer’s proposal, the Union proposed that the Employer would provide a hand delivered written notice and allow for at least four business days to allow an employee to secure a representative for an investigatory meeting. Additionally, if notice was provided after 12pm, the following day would be the first day of the four-day notice period and would exclude holidays or weekends. Finally, the Union countered that the Employer would provide the Union with a calendar invite for the meeting and a link for virtual meetings.

Article 9 – Hours of Work and Work Schedules
In response to the Employer’s proposal, the Union proposed to keep the language stating that an employee could cite personal and/or family needs for alternative work schedules and that such requests would be approved by the Employer.

Article 20 – Miscellaneous Leave
In response to the Employer’s proposal, the Union included the housekeeping changes with regards to the benefits office but maintained their proposed language regarding the inclusion of five paid personal leave days each calendar year.

Next Steps
The next WFSE and UW bargaining session is scheduled for Thursday, August 22, 2024 and will be held virtually.