KAISER, UNIONS REACH PIONEERING PACT; AGREEMENT REQUIRES REDEPLOYING DISPLACED WORKERS.

Byline: Jason Takenouchi Staff Writer

Kaiser Permanente and a coalition of labor unions announced a groundbreaking employment and income security pact Tuesday that officials said should serve as a model for other health care organizations.

Under the agreement, Kaiser committed itself to ``redeploy, not lay-off'' employees who are displaced by corporate restructuring, providing a one-year transition period and training opportunities if necessary.

In exchange, the unions agreed to negotiate changes in the workplace, including the elimination of some job classifications and ``flexibility'' in union contract language.

``We intend to do everything possible to retain these valuable employees in the face of changes in the health care sector,'' said David Lawrence, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, in a conference call Tuesday morning.

The pact covers 60,000 full- and part-time Kaiser employees with union contracts, including those represented by the Service Employees International Union at Kaiser facilities in Panorama City and Woodland Hills. It excludes managers and some workers whose unions have not joined the partnership.

Under the first-of-its-kind pact, Kaiser said it will try to find jobs for ``displaced'' employees with similar duties, pay, benefits and hours within a ``reasonable geographic area.''

If that is not possible, Kaiser will put affected workers in ``transition status'' at another position with at least a year at current pay levels. And if an employee's previous position is phased out, the employee ``is expected to actively seek education and training to qualify for a different position.''

The agreement is an outgrowth of a partnership that Kaiser and the unions formed in 1997. At that time, the unions agreed to help Kaiser, the nation's largest nonprofit health maintenance organization, market its services to union members in exchange for flexibility in the workplace.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the new pact would give workers a role in management restructuring in the workplace.

``This will hopefully be a model for other employers and will reflect the concern that workers have for good patient care,'' Sweeney said.

But some unions that represent Kaiser workers said they are uneasy about the agreement.

Although he agreed that employment guarantees are important, an official with the California Nurses Association - an independent union representing 8,600 nurses in Northern California - said the management-union partnership hurts employees' ability to oppose poor management decisions such as the replacement of registered nurses with less-trained workers. The CNA is not part of the pact.

``We don't see how it's possible for registered nurses to advocate for patients and at the same time market the plan as the best plan,'' said Jim Ryder, director of the union's Kaiser division. ``There are times when you have to advocate against what an employer is doing.''