Union doctors and dentists working in hospitals and other health care facilities run by Los Angeles County will get cost-of-living raises and bonuses under new agreements with the county, reached after more than two years of negotiations and threats of strike.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote this month on tentative agreements with a pair of bargaining units represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists.
Members of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists had prepared to strike in December, complaining that inadequate benefits had hampered recruitment and retention and raised vacancy rates for crucial positions at county facilities, including psychiatrists in their prisons.
Much of the dispute centered on the “Megaflex” benefits package that Los Angeles County offers to more than 14,000 employees, including management and administrative staff, most of whom are non-union. That package gives workers an additional 14.5% to 19% on top of their base pay to purchase benefits and allows them to keep any unspent portion as income, according to county officials.
The UAPD lobbied for its members to obtain these benefits. The Department of Health Services responded that they already had an “extensive benefits package” (the same one that is in effect for more than 35,000 county workers) and that giving them all a more expensive package would prevent the county from focusing its incentives on workers. harder to recruit.
The two sides also argued over the costs of expanding Megaflex: At one point, UAPD officials estimated the additional costs at about $20 million a year based on current salaries, but county officials had pegged the expected expense at more than $86 million a year, with Costs increase with any salary increase.
The strike planned for December was put on hold after the county and union agreed to seek opinions from outside experts on the implications of Megaflex's expansion.
In late April, the UAPD announced that its negotiating teams had reached tentative agreements with the county, which were ratified by union members in late May.
Under the agreement, workers would get cost-of-living raises that would match those received by other county employees, with additional raises for some positions ranging from 2.75% to 19.25%, according to the county executive's office. . Starting salaries were also increased for some medical specialties such as neurology.
Additionally, the county agreed to bolster benefits “no later than January 1, 2026,” according to the CEO's office. Additional benefits include a 401(k) plan, as well as short-term disability benefits for physicians, who had complained that doctors were not receiving enough paid time off to recover from childbirth.
The existing set of benefits puts doctors who plan to become pregnant “at a disadvantage compared to private hospitals in the area,” said Dr. Michelle Armacost, a neurology physician at one of the county facilities, in a released statement. by the union. . “We demanded equitable benefits and were willing to strike for them. “The county listened to us and we prevailed.”
Beyond those raises, county workers not covered by Megaflex will receive an annual bonus of $14,000 on top of their base salary, according to the CEO's office. Union officials also said the agreement includes a “physician loyalty bonus for residents who choose to remain in the county after residency.”
“These new agreements establish competitive salaries and attractive benefits that we hope will allow us to fill critical vacancies in our hospitals and other county-run facilities and retain the talented healthcare workers already providing essential services to our county residents,” he said. the executive office. in a sentence.
County officials did not immediately provide an estimate of the costs of the new contract with unionized doctors.
The benefits have long been a point of contention for the county's doctors. Doctors employed by Los Angeles County were locked out of Megaflex benefits more than two decades ago, a few years after they voted to unionize.
At the time, county officials said such benefits were available only to non-union employees. “The doctors knew very well what they were getting into,” then-Supervisor Don Knabe said in 2001.
Labor officials denounced it as a move to break up the fledgling union, estimating the value of the benefits package at $19,000 or more for some top doctors at the time. State lawmakers then prohibited the county from removing workers from a benefits plan because they were unionized, making the law retroactive to before Los Angeles County moved. The UAPD also sued the county and ultimately obtained more than $10 million in a settlement.
The union later negotiated a new agreement with the county that protected existing workers at Megaflex but placed new hires on a different plan, the county executive's office said. In December, only a small number of UAPD members (fewer than 200) had Megaflex benefits, according to the county.
In a report last year to county supervisors, Dr. Christina R. Ghaly, director of the Department of Health Services, said that over the years, “consistent salary increases were negotiated taking into account that this group did not receive Megaflex benefits.”
UAPD president Dr Stuart Bussey rejected the idea that they had “negotiated Megaflex” at a public meeting last year. In the past, “recruitment wasn't as bad as it is now” and a state law limiting pension benefits for government employees was not in effect, Bussey told the crowd. “The time has changed.”
In a recent statement to union members, Bussey said UAPD members had “refused to reach an agreement until we reached a collective bargaining agreement that prioritizes patient care with competitive wages and benefits.”
“Their determination and patience paid off and we look forward to working with the county to fill the vacant positions.”
