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Settlement of PERB Case No. LA-CE-718-H

April 17, 2003

CUE and the University reached a settlement agreement on March 25, 2003 regarding an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Charge against the Physician Support Services Department at the UCLA Medical Center.

The ULP Charge stems from a meeting in June, 2002, at which PSS managers told employees that they could not discuss "with anyone" the proposed merger of Radiology Billing employees with PSS.

In the ULP Charge, CUE argued that the University's clerical employees have a right to discuss their wages, hours and working conditions with each other, and with the Union, and that the University had interfered with that right when PSS managers imposed a blanket "confidentiality" rule on the employees, which would prohibit them from discussing their wages and working conditions with each other. CUE filed the charge after employees in different units of PSS had reported that managers regularly told employees not to talk to employees in other units, not to dicuss their pay rates with their co-workers, to "mind their own business" and so on.

Although the settlement agreement is not an admission of wrongdoing, by signing it, the University agreed that it would not interfere with employees' rights to discuss employment matters with each other or with the Union, and further promised that UCLA Healthcare Labor Relations would inform supervisors and managers in PSS about employees' rights.

"This is an important victory in protecting employees' "free speech" rights on the job," said Claudia Horning, CUE's Statewide President. "If the employees can't talk to one another, they have no chance of organizing and working with the Union to improve their wages and working conditions."

The key paragraph in the settlement agreement reads:

"The University agrees to abide by the rights of all CUE-represented employees under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA), including HEERA Section 3571 (a), and will not interfere with the exercise of those rights. The University recognizes that University employees have the right to discuss employment issues, including wages, hours, working conditions and disciplinary matters, with their union representative, which is CUE, and with their co-workers, as long as these communications do not interfere with the employees performing their work."

If you wish to obtain a copy of the settlement agreement, you can contact CUE Organizer Scott Miller at (310) 473-8710.