Apparently, SEIU-UHW officials are not satisfied by simply conspiring
with Kaiser Permanente to slash workers’ pensions and benefits.
So they’ve
launched new schemes to help Kaiser do an end-run around vital protections
built into workers’ union contract. Here’s what’s happening:
Kaiser -- like many companies -- would
love to hire lots of short-hour employees who don’t get benefits. Fortunately, workers’ long-standing union contract protects
against this kind of money-grubbing abuse. Under the contract, if Kaiser works
you more than 20 hours a week for a period of time, then the company is required
to convert you to a “benefitted” position that provides you with health insurance,
sick leave, vacation pay, etc.
Err... at least that’s the way it used to work... that is, until SEIU’s DC
officials took over the job of “enforcing” Kaiser workers’ contract.
According to
workers at Kaiser Roseville
Medical Center, managers in the Environmental Services (EVS) Department have begun instructing short-hour employees to sign a nifty
“waiver” that’s pictured below. The form -- which is entitled
“Environmental Service Conversion Waiver” -- asks workers to sign away their
right to be converted to a benefitted position. Here's what it says:
I, _____________ (Employee Name and Employee ID), authorize to waive my contractual rights to a conversion from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012.
Tasty hears that managers are telling short-hour workers that
UNLESS they sign the waiver, management will refuse to give them ANY hours of work at all. When some workers pushed back, managers told them that SEIU had
already approved the “waiver form!”
Tasty investigated the legality of the SEIU/Kaiser waiver,
and Tasty’s sources say it’s completely illegal. You can’t give away your
contractually guaranteed rights by signing a form. So don't sign! And tell SEIU and Kaiser to put their illegal form where it belongs!
