New contract boosts salaries, weekend pay for unionized employees at University Medical Center

Unionized employees at University Medical Center will receive salary increases and more pay for working weekends under a new four-year contract between the county-owned hospital and Service Employees International Union Local 1107.

The contract, which county commissioners unanimously ratified Tuesday, will also end longevity pay for new UMC employees.

The contract is estimated to cost UMC about $21.3 million over the next three years.

Cost-of-living pay increases will be a retroactive raise of 2.5 percent for July 1, 2016, 2 percent in 2017, and 2 percent in 2018. The contract allows the SEIU to seek changes to the wage rate in 2019.

UMC employees had been earning an extra $1.25 an hour during weekend shifts. That differential will increase by 20 cents an hour immediately and will continue each year for four years, until it is $2.05 more an hour.

SEIU is the collective bargaining representative for more than 3,400 employees at the nonprofit, public hospital. The hospital employees are in a different bargaining unit than other SEIU-affiliated county employees.

The contract expires on June 30, 2020.