Workers say the numbers point to understaffing, as they often must work overtime and through breaks to care for patients and complete other essential tasks.

UCSF nurse Erin Carrera, a representative for the California Nurses Association, said that most instances of overtime occur when there are not enough staff members, nurses have not finished their patient-care work or a replacement has not arrived to relieve them.

“We’re nurses,” Carrera said. “We’re not going to walk away from our patients because we don’t have a release.”

Out of nearly 15,000 nurses employed by the UC system in 2012, nearly 13,000 earned some amount of overtime, according to a UC payroll report published July 31. The payroll report also shows that 235 of the 270 ultrasound technologists and 485 of the 547 radiology technologists employed by the system earn overtime. These ratios have remained somewhat consistent since 2010 and 2011.

UC spokesperson Dianne Klein said that overtime is a necessary part of providing adequate health care services and that staff members are well-compensated for overtime work.

Nurses working overtime are typically compensated at a rate of 1.5 times their regular salary, according to the nurses’ contract. The contract also stipulates that overtime cannot be mandatory except during university-declared emergencies.

“Effective medical care means that staff must be flexible and willing to work overtime in the event of emergencies,” Klein said in an email. “I believe you’ll find that the majority of our medical center employees – dedicated professionals – enjoy their jobs and consider UC a great place to work.”

Overtime work is voluntary for many workers, but UC San Diego MRI technologist Richard Smith said that the UC system can say it is voluntary because they know someone will do the work. Smith said that he and his co-workers each work seven to 25 hours of overtime every week in order to fulfill patient-care needs.

“Someone has to step up and say ‘I’ll do the overtime’ and take care of the patients,” Smith said.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents more than 12,000 patient-care workers, has claimed that many UC medical centers are experiencing understaffing and has cited staffing levels as a major reason for recent strikes. The union has been in contract negotiations with the UC system since 2012.

“There is far more use of overtime,” said AFSCME spokesperson Todd Stenhouse. “UC’s policy has been to demand that health care workers do more with less.”

Tim Thrush, vice president of patient care at AFSCME and diagnostic sonographer at UCSF, said that patient-care workers have to work overtime in order to care for every patient that management books.

According to Klein, however, the number of health care staff members employed by the UC system increased from 2008 to 2013, with the number of patient-care technical workers increasing by about 13 percent and the number of health care professional staff members increasing by about 35 percent. Service staff represented by AFSCME increased by less than 1 percent.

“Our medical centers operate in a highly regulated environment and if we had unsafe staffing levels, we simply would not be allowed to operate,” Klein said in an email.

Stenhouse said the UC system should convert its per diem workers, who receive no guaranteed benefits, to its career staff. He added that there is a need for enforceable levels of safe staffing and a committee to ensure safe staffing ratios are maintained.

Contact Sohan Shah at sshah@dailycal.org.

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The total UC payroll of roughly $10.6 billion in 2011 grew to $11.2 billion in 2012. The highest source of funding for pay came from medical enterprises, such as teaching hospitals — which became the single highest source of funding at $2.8 billion — and the Medical Compensation Plan.

“The biggest jump was from medical enterprises,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein. “They were generating more money.”

Funding from the federal government and from general funds and educational fees dropped from 2011 by nearly $28 million and nearly $40 million, respectively. Funding from private gifts, grants and contracts increased by more than $24 million to $636 million during the same period.

According to a UC press release, the 10 highest-paid UC employees in 2012 were “health sciences faculty members (typically world-renowned specialists in their fields who are paid predominantly from their clinical practices) and athletic coaches (paid from non-state funds).”

Lecturers, other teaching faculty and clinical professors represented the highest percentage of academic personnel payroll, while those in the health care and allied sciences group were the highest percentage of staff payroll. There were no general merit increases for employees not represented by unions in 2012.

“UC salaries are below market,” Klein said. “That does make it hard to attract top talent.”

Klein cited several alternatives to compensation as incentives for working for the UC system, such as the university’s public service mission.

The report attributed the increase in payroll to “a combination of factors, including increased research activity and market pressures for more competitive compensation, particularly in the areas of health care, instruction and research.”

UC Academic Senate Chair Robert Powell stated that the decrease in public funding has made some people feel that the UC system is becoming less and less like a public university.

“We want UC to be for California,” Powell said. “Many of us regret that we have to take more out-of-state students and cut faculty and services. If state funding is there, we won’t have to do these things.”

The highest-paid UC employee in 2012 was former UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland, who earned roughly $2.2 million in gross pay.

Contact Sohan Shah at sshah@dailycal.org.

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The implementation follows more than 12 months of negotiations, including a two-day strike in May, between the university and AFSCME Local 3299, the union representing the workers. The contract was implemented on July 24 and will last until negotiations are complete. Either the union or the university can bring new proposals forward, after which negotiations will resume. If both parties agree, the new terms will replace all or part of this contract, depending on which issues were successfully negotiated.

“Having completed all stages of the bargaining process, including state-assisted mediation and fact finding, the university is legally entitled to implement its last proposal,” said UC Vice President for Systemwide Human Resources and Programs Dwaine Duckett in a statement. “We would have preferred to reach a settlement, but this implementation provides our patient care staff with fair wage increases and good benefits now, rather than forcing them to continue waiting through stalled negotiations.”

Changes for AFSCME workers include a guaranteed step increase of 2 percent for eligible employees on or about July 1 and a guaranteed wage increase of 1.5 percent on or about Oct. 1, as well as medical, dental and vision benefits and contribution rates for employees and their families.

The contract also includes an implementation of the university’s post-employment benefits program, which includes an increase in the UC system’s contribution from 10 percent to 12 percent and an increase in employee contribution from 5 percent to 6.5 percent for workers hired before July 1, as well as a slightly modified tier of pension benefits for workers hired on or after July 1.

“The contract imposed on the Patient Care Technical Unit by UC includes a substantially smaller across the board wage increase than UC granted to its management staff on July 1,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger in a statement. “UC also is forcing frontline patient care workers to make substantially increased pension contributions, up to a 20% increase in Health Insurance premiums, parking increases up to 10%, and reductions in paid leave.”

Lybarger also stated that the contract does not address alleged unsafe staffing levels at UC hospitals.

“We’ve been negotiating with AFSCME in good faith since June of 2012,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein. “We’ve offered proposals specifically on pension reform, and AFSCME gave nothing back.”

AFSCME Local 3299 spokesperson Todd Stenhouse stated that the union has offered compromise but that the offers were pushed aside. He also added that executive pensions continued to increase at the expense of students, workers and taxpayers.

The union held a rally and march in Los Angeles Friday morning where more than 200 supporters protested the university’s announcement. Twenty-five protesters were subsequently arrested for blocking traffic and refusing to disperse.

“We are going to redouble our efforts to hold UC accountable,” Stenhouse said. “Our members are united in standing for a better UC.”

Klein said that there was no planned timetable for negotiations going forward.

Contact Sohan Shah at sshah@dailycal.org.

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The morning session of the UC Regents meeting on Thursday featured discussions on online education and the establishment of a world food center at UC Davis.

The session opened with a public comment period. Assemblymember Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, emphasized the need for an improved pathway for community college students to transfer into the University of California.

AFSCME Local 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger highlighted the increase in executive compensation since 2008, the doubling of UC debt burden and the thousands of layoffs of UC workers.

“California is watching to see if now is the time we get our priorities straight,” Lybarger said. “It’s time that we do.”

Several students also spoke about animal abuse within the UC system, chanting, “It’s not science — it’s violence.”

The regents then approved the appointment and compensation for co-acting chief investment officers Melvin Stanton and Randolph Wedding.

UC Provost Aimee Dorr gave a presentation regarding online education efforts. Dorr presented the number of students enrolled and courses offered online while the regents asked questions about potentially extending the online program to community college students and using the program for remediation.

UC President Mark Yudof stated that there will soon be more money entering the program but that they needed to get away from the raw numbers.

“We will be discussing with students on campus,” Yudof said. “They know the courses. They know how they are.”

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi then presented on the establishment of a world food center at the UC Davis campus. The center will focus on all aspects of food, specifically the nexus between food and health.

“The signature challenge we face is how we feed and nourish the world,” Katehi said. “More than a century of research and experience gives Davis the expertise to lead this discussion.”

Following Katehi’s presentation, the regents voted to amend the faculty code of conduct. The changes would protect faculty members’ rights to criticize the university and allow faculty to participate in shared governance.

Dorr then presented to the Committee on Long Range Planning about the annual University of California Accountability Report.

“Overall, the report finds that the university continues to maintain its historic levels of access, affordability and accountability,” Dorr said.

UC Regent Norman Pattiz then opened the meeting of the Committee on Oversight of the Department of Energy Laboratories and introduced two researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory who discussed forest mortality and its future impacts on the world.

The session concluded with the regents passing a resolution in appreciation of Yudof, who is stepping down in August.

Contact Sohan Shah at sohanshah@dailycal.org.

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At the meeting, both sides discussed an AFSCME offer to increase employee pension payments in exchange for a focus on more staffing at UC medical centers. AFSCME has said that more staff members are needed to improve safety in the medical centers following negative ratings and a higher incidence of patient injury.

The university rejected the offer because the cost was higher than it was willing to accept, and the offer was not presented as a formal proposal, according to UC officials. The university, which criticized AFSCME’s strikes in May, has focused on pension reform in the negotiations.

“Pension reform has been the primary sticking point in these
negotiations,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein in an email. “UC is engaged in reasonable pension reform to protect the long-term viability of retirement plans so it can continue to provide quality pension benefits to all employees.”

Pension reform has been at the center of negotiations since they started in June 2012, as unions fought to keep their members’ pensions after the university did not pay into the fund for more than 20 years, leading to a shortage of available money for retirees and forcing employees to pay increased dues into the pension fund.

Representatives from AFSCME also say a central issue of Thursday’s offer is protecting patient safety.

“This proposed compromise was about protecting patients,” said AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger in a press release Friday. “In rejecting our good faith offer, UC Administrators have not only shown contempt for the workers at the backbone of the UC medical system, but also a shocking disregard for the safety of the patients they serve.”

But AFSCME’s May strike put patients and their families unnecessarily at risk, said UC spokesperson Shelly Meron.

Disagreements over executive compensation have also arisen. AFSCME alleges that the university has diverged from providing affordable care and that policies cutting expenses burdened UC employees.

“UC is demanding that its lowest paid workers agree to pay more and work longer in order to subsidize the six figure annual pensions that UC routinely shells out to its highest paid executives,” Lybarger said in the release.

AFSCME advocates a cap on executive pensions similar to caps instated by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year.

But the university said that executive compensation is necessary for UC medical centers to offer top-tier services.

“We have to compete in a very competitive marketplace,” Meron said. “We have to offer compensation that will attract the best candidates to these jobs.”

Contact Simon Greenhill and Sohan Shah at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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Tuition would stay the same at all professional schools except the system’s four nursing programs and four newly created master’s degrees. Discussion on professional school fees for the coming year was postponed in November by Gov. Jerry Brown in the wake of the passage of Proposition 30.

Graduate students in academic programs, however, will not be affected by the fee proposal. Professional programs require supplemental tuition fees that other graduate students in academic programs do not pay. Professional programs include law, medicine and business degrees, and academic programs include studies in English, chemistry and history, among others.

According to UC spokesperson Dianne Klein, supplemental fees make sense because professional schools follow a very different funding model than undergraduate programs do — in large part due to the policy decisions of past state governments.

“Gov. Schwarzenegger, for example, believed that while the state had an obligation to fund undergraduate education, the professional schools should be the responsibility of the individual students,” Klein said in an email. “These were the future high earners—the physicians, lawyers and business people.”

The regents will still be asked to approve a fee increase for university’s nursing programs due to a lack of promised state and federal funding after a ramp-up of the nursing programs. The regents will consider approving new fees for new degree programs. Overall, 800 students will be affected by new charges.

“It isn’t very transparent when (the regents) do any fee increases over the summer when students aren’t on campus,” said Bahar Navab, president of the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly.

UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare Dean Jeffrey L. Edleson said he is sympathetic to the rising costs of higher education and students’ struggles to pay bills.

“On the other hand, by freezing tuition and PDST increases we are actually cutting the University’s budget each year,” Edleson said in an email. “We simply cannot provide the world’s best public education on a shrinking budget year after year.”

Even if the proposal on professional degree tuition is enacted, it could be changed in as little as a year.

 We concluded that most of the programs can get by for one year on their existing fee levels,” Klein said. “This is not a long-term, sustainable proposition, but it is one we think we can do for a year.”

Contact Nico Correia and Sohan Shah at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that funds from Proposition 30 and a undergraduate tuition buyout by the state government would be used to freeze tuition for many of UC’s professional degree programs. In fact, these funding sources are not connected to the tuition of the programs.

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Lexy Atmore/Courtesy

UC President Mark Yudof approved the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s proposal to change its full-time MBA program to self-supporting status last week.

Previously, the programs costs were covered by a combination of state funds and student tuition. Following Yudof’s decision, the program will be covered mainly by student tuition.

“I appreciate the fact that (Yudof) is supportive of this approach,” said Anderson Dean Judy Olian. “This is the sixth self-supporting program at Anderson. This is the natural progression.”

Yudof announced his approval and explained his decision on June 24 in a letter to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. As the UC Board of Regents delegated the authority for setting self-supporting charges to the president, the decision was ultimately Yudof’s.

“In all respects, the Anderson School and all its degree programs are expected to retain the characteristics of the great public research university that is the University of California,” Yudof wrote.

In his letter, Yudof also stated three conditions that his approval is subject to: The program must not use state funds or tuition from students in other programs; the program must continue to ensure that financial aid is offered for “financially needy” students; and the program must adhere to the specifics of the self-supporting policy on graduate professional degree programs.

Olian stated that the business MBA program will remain unchanged, including current tuition levels.

“It’s a mistake to think that state support has protected students from tuition increases,” Olian said. “Under state support, tuition increased.”

Yudof also acknowledged in the letter that the UC Academic Senate did not support the action but that he believes this action represents a compromise between two competing views.

“The Academic Senate was basically concerned from a policy standpoint that we didn’t conform to the recommendations for a self-supporting program,” Olian said. “We provided data that showed otherwise. Yudof saw both sides and made his decision.”

Olian said that the only changes to the MBA program will be improvements in assigning and compensating faculty.

UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Dean Richard Lyons said in a statement that he was delighted that Anderson succeeding in getting approval for the transformation.

“Dean Judy Olian has been bravely pursuing the goal of gaining maximum financial flexibility over this program so that it can continue to do well in a rapidly changing operating environment,” Lyons said in the statement. “We share in that overall goal at Berkeley-Haas but have taken a different path to achieve it.”

Lyons stated that the undergraduate business program at Haas will not change and will continue to receive state funding.

Contact Sohan Shah at sohanshah@dailycal.org.

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Tim Maloney/Staff

Nearly six years after making a bond refunding agreement that could allow the Peralta Community College District to generate additional proceeds, the district is suing JPMorgan Chase & Co. because it believes the multinational banking corporation is exercising an option that potentially denies money to the taxpayers who support higher education institutions.

The terms of the original agreement gave the bank an option to require the district — which consists of four community colleges in the East Bay including Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College and Merritt College — to issue new bonds and sell them to the bank, thereby allowing the bank to take advantage of the benefits of lower interest rates, according to the complaint filed by the district with the Superior Court of California.

The district originally made the bond refunding agreement with Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., which was bought by JPMorgan in March 2008 after the former’s near-collapse.

The contract between the district and the bank, dated Jan. 19, 2006, “put in place a bond refunding transaction that resembles, in important substantive respects, a type of refunding commonly referred to as a ‘cash-out refunding,’” according to the complaint.

A “cash-out refunding” is a refunding of previously issued bonds by which the district not only obtained proceeds sufficient to retire outstanding bonds, but was able to generate additional proceeds that could be applied to other purposes, according to the complaint.

The California Attorney General had written an opinion in January 2009 that said cash-out refunding contracts for school districts were unconstitutional, according to district spokesperson Jeffrey Heyman.

According to the opinion, this agreement “means the district ‘would be depriving its taxpayers of the full benefits of refinancing; instead, the taxpayers would be taxed, without voter approval, to support this new debt -— a result that is not permitted under either the constitutional debt limit or the constitutional cap on taxes.’”

The opinion was written following a member of the state senate asking the attorney general in 2007 to review the validity of the transactions between the district and the bank, according to the complaint.

“We’re simply asking JPMorgan to return taxpayer’s money,” Heyman said. “We feel that JPMorgan has a moral obligation to follow through with this.”

Heyman also said there was no real timeline yet for the lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for JPMorgan declined to comment for the story.

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Systemwide payroll increased from roughly $10 billion in 2010 to $10.6 billion in 2011. This increase was attributed to a “combination of factors, including restoration of furlough reductions, increased research activity and market pressures for more competitive compensation,” according to the summary of the report.

The summary also states that compensation for many UC employees is significantly below the market level.

“With the exception of contractual obligations to union-represented employees, salary increases were either eliminated or sharply curtailed from 2008 through 2010-11,” reads the summary.

A press release regarding the report sent by the UC Office of the President Thursday states that the percentage of UC compensation funded by the state and student educational fees has continued to decline to less than 26 percent in 2011, down one percentage point from 2010.

UC spokesperson Dianne Klein said the lower rates of compensation are due to diminishing state support.

“While we understand that we’re in a recession, you really can’t consistently underpay employees before they leave,” Klein said. “Competitors have been able to provide raises, especially at privates.”

The greatest source of funding, at 36 percent, was from clinical revenue and other sources associated with UC teaching hospitals and medical and dental facilities.

About 40 percent of the total payroll goes to academic employees, such as teaching faculty and lecturers, while roughly 60 percent goes to nonacademic employees, such as those who work in student services and patient care, according to the report.

The 10 top-earning UC employees in 2011, based on total pay, were health sciences faculty members and athletic coaches, according to the press release.

The highest paid UC employee in 2011 was UC Berkeley football head coach Jeff Tedford, who earned $2,884,880 in gross pay.

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Sarah Brennan/Staff

Residential dining commons Cafe 3 will be expanding its days of operation from four days a week to seven just in time for the start of the fall semester.

The cafe, located in the Unit 3 Residence Hall near Telegraph Avenue between Channing Way and Durant Avenue, will begin its new hours of operation and provide both brunch and dinner starting Aug. 20.

The cafe originally had to curtail service in Fall 2009 due to budget cuts, according to Patrice Thomas, customer and public relations manager at Cal Dining.

“With the opening of Maximino Martinez Commons and the addition of 400 new residents, we are able to offer a full week of service at Cafe 3,” Thomas said in an email. “Increasing the service hours also allows us to meet the increased demand of the new residential community.”

Maximino Martinez Commons, located near People’s Park, is expected to open in the fall and will service 416 students.

According to Thomas, the cafe will continue its unique brunch and dinner service, and will be serving 14 meals a week to its patrons. Of the four main campus dining commons — including the Crossroads, Foothill and Clark Kerr dining commons — Cafe 3 is the only one that serves weekday brunch, according to the Cal Dining website.

“Brunch and dinner will be served seven days a week,” Thomas said in the email. “Brunch is served from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and dinner from 5-9 p.m.,” Thomas said in the email. “We do anticipate an increase in meals served due to Martinez Commons.”

Chuck Davies, the associate director of residential dining at Cal Dining, said the expanded operation days at Cal Dining will have a positive effect on Crossroads, the residential dining commons located near the Unit 1 and Unit 2 residence halls.

“Things will be a lot less crazy at Crossroads, particularly on the weekends,” Davies said. “It will relieve pressure on service.”

According to Thomas, the type of service and menu at the cafe will be the same, but there will be some noticeable changes such as a self-service deli bar that was added over the summer and expanded grill service. Cal Dining also hopes to add two full-time sushi chefs to the cafe.

“With expanded service there are additional costs for labor, food and other expenses but these will be offset by the revenue that we will receive from the 220 new resident meal plans at Martinez Commons,” Thomas said in the email.

Norma Jamison-Birks, general manager at Cafe 3 and the Unit 3 Bear Market, said in an email that the cafe staff is looking forward to expanding service.

“We serve several items, like our daily omelette bar, that are very popular with students,” Jamison-Birks said in an email. “Now they will be able to enjoy more of their favorite dishes all week long.”

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