Unionized medical doctors and dentists who work at hospitals and different well being amenities run by Los Angeles County will get cost-of-living will increase and bonuses below new agreements with the county, reached after greater than two years of bargaining and threats of a strike.
The tentative agreements with a pair of bargaining models represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists are anticipated to be voted on this month by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Members of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists had geared as much as go on strike in December, complaining that insufficient advantages had hampered recruitment and retention and pushed up emptiness charges for essential positions in county amenities, together with for psychiatrists in its jails.
A lot of the dispute centered on the “Megaflex” advantages package deal that L.A. County gives to greater than 14,000 staff together with managerial and administrative employees, most of whom should not unionized. That package deal offers staff a further 14.5% to 19% over their base pay to purchase advantages and permits them to maintain any unspent portion as earnings, based on county officers.
UAPD pushed for its members to get these advantages. The Division of Well being Companies countered that they already had an “in depth advantages package deal” — the identical one in place for greater than 35,000 different county staff — and that giving all of them a extra pricey package deal would forestall the county from concentrating its incentives on the hardest-to-recruit staff.
The 2 sides additionally sparred over the prices of increasing Megaflex: At one level, UAPD officers estimated the added prices at roughly $20 million a yr based mostly on present wages, however county officers had pegged the anticipated expense at greater than $86 million a yr, with prices rising with any wage improve.
The deliberate strike in December was placed on maintain after the county and the union agreed to hunt opinions from outdoors consultants in regards to the implications of increasing Megaflex.
In late April, the UAPD introduced that its negotiating groups had reached tentative agreements with the county, which had been ratified by union members by the top of Could.
Beneath the deal, the employees would get cost-of-living will increase that match these acquired by different county staff, with further hikes for some positions starting from 2.75% to 19.25%, based on the county chief government workplace. Beginning wages had been additionally elevated for some medical specialties resembling neurology.
As well as, the county agreed to bolster advantages “no later than January 1, 2026,” based on the chief government workplace. The added advantages embrace a 401(ok) plan, in addition to short-term incapacity advantages for physicians, who had complained that medical doctors weren’t getting sufficient paid day without work to recuperate from childbirth.
The present set of advantages put feminine physicians planning to develop into pregnant “at a drawback in comparison with personal hospitals within the space,” mentioned Dr. Michelle Armacost, a doctor specializing in neurology at one of many county amenities, in a press release launched by the union. “We demanded equitable advantages, and we had been prepared to strike for them. The county heard us, and we prevailed.”
Past these will increase, county staff who should not coated by Megaflex will get an annual bonus of $14,000 on prime of their base wage, based on the chief government workplace. Union officers additionally mentioned the deal encompasses a “doctor loyalty bonus for residents who select to stay with the county after residency.”
“These new agreements set aggressive wages and engaging advantages that we hope will permit us to fill important vacancies at our county-run hospitals and different amenities and retain the proficient healthcare staff already offering important providers to our county residents,” the chief government workplace mentioned in a press release.
County officers didn’t instantly present an estimate of the prices of the brand new contract with the unionized medical doctors.
Advantages have lengthy been a bone of rivalry for county physicians. Docs employed by L.A. County had been reduce off from Megaflex advantages greater than 20 years in the past, a number of years after that they had voted to unionize.
On the time, county officers mentioned such advantages had been out there solely to nonunionized staff. “The medical doctors, they knew full properly what they had been stepping into,” then-Supervisor Don Knabe mentioned in 2001.
Labor officers decried it as a transfer to interrupt the fledgling union, calculating the worth of the advantages package deal at $19,000 or extra to some senior medical doctors on the time. State lawmakers then banned the county from eradicating staff from a advantages plan as a result of they unionized, making the regulation retroactive to earlier than the L.A. County transfer. The UAPD additionally sued the county, finally securing over $10 million in settlement.
The union later negotiated a brand new settlement with the county that grandfathered in present staff on Megaflex, however put new hires on a unique plan, the county chief government workplace mentioned. As of December, solely a small variety of UAPD members — fewer than 200 — had Megaflex advantages, based on the county.
In a report final yr to county supervisors, Dr. Christina R. Ghaly, director of the Division of Well being Companies, mentioned that over time, “regular will increase in wage had been negotiated whereas factoring in that this group doesn’t obtain Megaflex advantages.”
UAPD President Dr. Stuart Bussey rejected the concept that they had “bargained Megaflex away” at a public rally final yr. Prior to now, “recruitment wasn’t as dangerous as it’s now,” and a state regulation limiting pension advantages for presidency staff wasn’t in impact, Bussey instructed the gang. “Occasions have modified.”
In a latest assertion to union members, Bussey mentioned that UAPD members had “refused to settle till we secured a collective bargaining settlement that prioritizes affected person care with aggressive pay and advantages.”
“Your dedication and persistence paid off, and we stay up for collaborating with the county to fill vacant positions.”
