The Professional Bargaining Unit of OFNHP won a case in arbitration that will help recoup from Kaiser a significant amount of money for the continuing education expenses of Pro members, including short hour and on call employees.
Since 2011, instead of rolling over the unused money in the Education Fund that is, by contract, allocated for every Pro member, Kaiser had been absorbing the residual amount for spending on other purposes and reporting that nothing was left over.
OFNHP members filed the grievance when Kaiser would not respond to requests to account for the unspent monies or even acknowledge that there should be a dedicated fund.
Moving that grievance through mediation and on to arbitration, three members of the LMP committee (who were also on the original bargaining team in 2005 that negotiated the Ed Fund language) provided testimony that was key in winning the grievance.
Thanks to Ann Augustine, Eileen Sparks and Ute Kongsbak, OFNHP is now in the process of recouping these funds to expand educational opportunities for members covered by the Professional contract.