OHSU-HOU bargaining: Session 8

Members of the Oregon Health & Science University and House Officers Union bargaining teams met in person on Thursday, Oct. 12, for their eighth bargaining session.

OHSU Proposals

The OHSU bargaining team’s proposals centered on access to pager systems, badge replacements and professional leave:

• Access to pager systems: Allow replacement for OHSU mobile devices every two years due to normal wear and tear; allow one-time replacement of lost/stolen/damaged mobile devices or pagers at no cost to the house officer.
• Badge replacement: Allow a free replacement ID badge if a house officer's ID badge is lost.
• Professional Leave: Expand the scope of professional leave to include interviews for fellowships or jobs and add new language allowing house officers to carry over up to two days of professional leave, with a cap of no more than seven days in the leave bank per year.

HOU Proposals

The HOU bargaining team submitted proposals focused on holiday leave, insurance and professional leave.

• Holiday leave: Add Juneteenth as a floating holiday; require an annual survey of all house officers in April to rank holiday preferences; require programs to create a written process to share holiday work as evenly as possible within its scheduling constraints; and create a process for house officers to initiate a new method of holiday coverage, with a vote of house officers in the program. Additionally, a new requirement for OHSU to maintain a central database tracking the holidays a house officer works throughout their program, along with a new benefit to give house officers working a holiday the option to choose between receiving an alternative day off that must be taken within 12 months or a holiday bonus of $800 were also proposed.
• Insurance: New benefit waiving deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance payments for services from the OHSU network; add a requirement for house officers and their dependents to receive an initial primary care appointment within 60 days of the start of their employment; create a new benefit of $30,000 per year for fertility preservation and infertility treatment; and create a new benefit of “tail coverage” to allow health benefits to continue for one month after the conclusion of a house officer’s program.
• Professional leave (responsive proposal): Expand the scope of professional leave to include interviews for fellowships or jobs and add new language allowing house officers to carry over up to two days of professional leave, with a cap of no more than 10 days in the leave bank per year.

Tentative Agreement: The OHSU and HOU bargaining teams came to the following tentative agreement:

• 4.X Badge Replacement: OHSU will cover replacement badges if they are lost.

Next meeting

The OHSU and HOU teams will next meet in person on Thursday, Oct. 19.

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