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The University of California system is working to improve relations with its 160,000 employees, but the administration is beset with problems, including outdated computers, a complex administrative structure and an authoritarian, corporate culture, top UC officials said Thursday.
Appearing before an Assembly committee, UC President Richard Atkinson said he was committed to improving the administration's attitude and creating "the right learning environment" for its employees.
But Atkinson's pledge was met with skepticism from union representatives and state lawmakers, who blasted UC officials for failing to negotiate with unions expeditiously and directly.
Assemblywoman Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, said she didn't buy the claims that poor computers and a maze-like administrative structure prevented campus officials from responding to union requests for information.
"I would hope that a hearing on labor relations should not end with the UC saying Give us more money,'" Romero said. "We give you a hell of a lot of money, and I think the point today is to find out what you do with it."
Other legislators offered equally bleak assessments. "I believe you're the worst public employer in the state of California," said Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley.
Assemblywoman Sally Havice, D-Cerritos, suggested the state conduct a management audit of the UC administrative structure. "It sounds like your lines of communication, even at the top, are broken," Havice said.
The sharpest exchange came from Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Sylmar, who said he wanted a written explanation for why UC negotiators did not respond to an October 1999 letter from the California Nurses Association requesting information for contract negotiations.
"I am stunned that you would blame this on computers. I mean how long does it take to write a letter in pencil?" Alarcon said. "I don't think there is any excuse. It is illegal. Are you going to tell a judge your computers were down so you couldn't respond to a letter in a year?"
Judith Boyette, the UC associate vice president for human resources, said UC's payroll systems are separate, campus to campus, and some information has to be gathered by hand, making it especially difficult and time-consuming to retrieve it.
"I'm not defending," Boyette said. "I'm trying desperately to say I know there is a problem, and we are responding."
"No you're not," Alarcon shot back. "That's exactly why we're here."
The committee's chairman, Assemblyman Ted Lempert, D-San Carlos, said he would ask for an audit of how the UC system spent money for salary increases. Union representatives accused the UC system of keeping some of the money.
Considered one of the premier public university institutions in the world, the UC system expects enrollment to climb 40 percent the next decade and faces the challenge of recruiting and keeping employees at all levels in an economy where better-paying jobs are bountiful.
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