At the beginning of 2020, UC began implementing Regents Policy 5402 (Policy Generally Prohibiting Contracting for Services). In addition, UC reached collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with the AFSCME (Association of Federal, State, County, and Municipal Employees) SX and EX bargaining units, and the CBAs were ratified on January 31, 2020 and February 7, 2020 respectively. These CBAs each contained an Article 5 with language prohibiting contracting for covered services similar to the language in Regents Policy 5402.
The key requirements of both the Regents Policy 5402 and AFSCME’s Article 5 are:
- Insource covered service work wherever and whenever practicable
- If covered services must be contracted out, then ensure that supplier employees providing the service will be paid a rate that is the equivalent of UC wage and benefits for UC employees doing the same work
- Provide an annual report of the contracts for covered services
Although the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted “business as usual”, UC did make progress in complying with the Regents Policy and Article 5 in 2020. All UC locations have worked to insource previously contracted covered services, and they have amended covered service contracts to include the Regents Policy and Article 5 requirements – including wage and benefit parity rates for individuals providing covered services under those contracts. And to conclude the first year under Regents Policy 5402 and AFSCME’s Article 5, UC recently sent AFSCME the annual report for the 2020 covered service contracts.
The work to comply with the Regents Policy and Article 5 will continue in 2021 as more covered service contracts are insourced and as local procurement teams ensure that all covered service contracts include the necessary requirements.