Kaiser Permanente and SEIU Local 399 conclude negotiations.

PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1996--Negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 399, concluded on March 30 with the health maintenance organization presenting the union with its final contract offer.

Employees represented by SEIU Local 399 have been working without a contract as of April 1. The union has scheduled contract vote meetings for April 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11. Kaiser Permanente has not received a 10-day notice of intent to strike.

Contract negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and its labor unions focus on a balance the organization is trying to achieve between providing high quality, affordable health care, maintaining a competitive position in the marketplace and remaining fair to its employees and physicians by providing competitive salaries and benefits.

In an effort to achieve this balance, Kaiser Permanente has proposed creating a market-driven wage structure which will bring employees' wages more in line with the community while guaranteeing that wages remain at least 4 percent above the community average. Currently, most Kaiser Permanente employees represented by Local 399 receive wages that are significantly higher than the community average.

The final contract offer includes a first-year wage freeze and 2.5 percent wage reduction commencing April 1, 1997, for those employees whose wages exceed the maximum of the salary structure.

"We believe the final contract offer we presented to the union is fair and reasonable," said Dany Valenzuela, chief negotiator for Kaiser Permanente. "Even with the wage and benefit modifications proposed, our employees will maintain their position as among the best paid and best benefited employees in the Southern California health care industry."

Also included in the final contract offer are proposed changes that have already been implemented with non-represented personnel and those represented by the United Nurses Associations of California (UNAC), the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, and the Guild for Professional Pharmacists.

These changes include co-payments for medical office visits and prescriptions; increases in the number of hours part-time employees are required to work per week to be eligible for benefits; and the introduction of a paid-time-off program, which consolidates vacation, sick leave and holiday hours.

Approximately 10,000 employees in the Southern California Region, excluding the Inland Empire and San Diego, are represented by SEIU, Local 399. Employees affected comprise three job families -- service and maintenance, patient care and technical, and clerical.

CONTACT: Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena

Pamela Dean, 818/405-5534