What’s in My New Tentative Agreement?
A Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), also called a union contract, is a detailed agreement between the union and the employer that governs wages, benefits, and working conditions. Each article builds on the others, and it can be easy to get lost when reading the full contract from start to finish.
To help clarify what’s in the agreement, we’ve included summaries of each article in the Tentative Agreement (TA) so you know exactly what you’re voting on. These summaries can also help you identify questions for organizers or union leaders and guide you as you review the full contract language.
Major Economic and Union Agreements
Wages
- As listed, 7-15% wage increases over two years with an average of 9%.
- Predictable wage scale with step-per-year increase.
- Raises the wage floor and will help with staffing through recruitment and retention.
- $800 ratification bonus for all workers.
- Employees are able to earn a critical shift incentive when an emergent staffing situation arises.
Benefits
- Healthcare support: Eligible employees will receive a healthcare stipend (extra money to help cover health insurance costs), and we have established a process to work toward improving or creating a new healthcare plan in the future.
- PTO for 7-on/7-off schedules: Employees who work a 7-days-on/7-days-off schedule will now earn paid time off.
- Expanded PTO eligibility: Employees who work 30 hours per week or more will now qualify to earn paid time off, a higher rate than previously.
Union Protections and Difference
- Job protection: You can no longer be fired “at will.” Labcorp must have a fair, documented reason for discipline or termination.
- Contract enforcement: There is a legally binding process to challenge contract violations and hold Labcorp accountable.
- Ongoing union voice: Workers and management will meet regularly through a Labor Partnership Committee to address issues and administer the contract together.
- Protecting union jobs: Labcorp cannot freely outsource or replace bargaining unit work.
- Future improvements: The contract creates a clear process to negotiate raises and benefits in every future bargaining cycle.
- Built to grow: This agreement sets a strong foundation to build on in the next contract.
Other Articles in Our New Contract
Union Recognition
• Establishes OFNHP as the exclusive bargaining unit representative for this contract.
Geographic Scope
• Means that new Labcorp units will have to choose whether or not to be a part of this agreement, but won’t be included automatically.
Union Stewards, Representatives, & Related Provisions
• Establishes the existence of union Stewards (bargaining unit members who represent their fellow workers when they have issues at work).
• Permits union representatives to access worksites.
• Establishes quarterly 30 minute orientation presentations for new hires, conducted by union representatives and/or Stewards.
• Establishes union bulletin boards at worksites.
Employee Definitions
• Establishes 4 categories of employees: full-time (30+ hours/week), part-time (20-30 hours/week), casual employees, and contingent employees.
• Requires the union to consent to use of a contingent employee for longer than 13 weeks.
Bargaining Unit Work
• Prevents use of contingent employees to replace bargaining unit members’ work or reduce the size of the bargaining unit.
Seniority, Layoff, Recalls, and Vacancies
• Defines what seniority is and how it is accrued (seniority is how long you’ve worked for a company; LabCorp will recognize all previous years of service with Legacy/Providence).
• Establishes a procedure for how layoffs, if they happen, are to be conducted.
• Establishes a procedure for how recalling employees back to work after a layoff is to be conducted.
• Grants OFNHP-represented employees priority on filling open positions at OFNHP represented LabCorp sites over all external candidates and establishes criteria for how to assign a new position when multiple qualified internal candidates apply.
Corrective Action
• Establishes a just cause standard for discipline, meaning that the employer must apply discipline in a way that is progressive, appropriate to the magnitude of the infraction, and applied equally to all employees. Just cause also requires that the employer take into account extenuating circumstances and provide fair notice of any rules that could result in discipline.
Float Pool
• Requires 24-hour notice of schedule changes for permanent float employees.
• Increases hourly rate by $2.00.
Labor Partnership Committee
• Establishes formal Labor Partnership Committee meetings in order to address workplace issues, jointly manage the CBA, and resolve issues that could give rise to contract violations.
• States that these meetings must occur at least once per quarter for 1.5 hours.
Grievance Procedure
• Creates a formal procedure for addressing contract violations to hold LabCorp accountable to the contract.
• Sets out a series of steps for contract enforcement, starting with local management and progressing to binding third-party arbitration.
• Allows for a pathway for bargaining unit members to be made whole when LabCorp violates the contract.
Safety & Quality of Care
• LabCorp has agreed to maintain a safe and healthy workplace and promote a culture of quality.
• Requires workplace safety training on harassment, exposure, and other forms of legal compliance.
Standards of Employment and Evaluations
• Gives employees the opportunity to comment on evaluations prior to being placed in their personnel file.
• Allows employees to have a union representative present at evaluation meetings.
Professional Development
• Gives full- and part-time employees the right to participate in the US Education Programs Policy.
Personnel File
• Allows employees to review the contents of their personnel file and to attach their own comments on any discipline or evaluations therein.
Discrimination
• Prohibits the employer from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, sexual/gender identity, sexual expression, pregnancy, marital status, political affiliation, disability (subject to bona fide occupational requirements and ability to perform within those requirements), veterans’ status, or any other basis prohibited by local, state, or federal law.
Successors
• Requires LabCorp to notify the new owner of the contents of this CBA in the event of an acquisition or merger.
• Requires LabCorp to notify the Union of any pending sale 45 days prior to the closing of said transaction.