Smarter Utility

[July 20, 2010]

State Employee Union Approves New Labor Contract Agreement with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

With 96 percent in favor, state-employed members of the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians voted to accept a new labor contract agreement with the Schwarzenegger Administration that includes pension reforms.

"The agreement reflects our state's realities while preserving our state's staffing and services for Californians with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses," said CAPT State President Tony Myers, a senior psychiatric technician at Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona.

The union and state reached the tentative contract agreement June 14. The agreement was then sent out to CAPT members for a ratification vote; votes were counted today. Highlights of the contract include:

• A 5-percent pension contribution increase to be paid by current employees, and significant retirement vesting formula and pension-calculation changes for new employees hired afte July 1, 2010.
• One unpaid Personal Leave Day per month for one year, to be banked as leave time due
  
  
  to CAPT's members 24-hour workplace staffing needs.
• A state pick-up of 80 percent of healthcare premium increases for 2010 and 2011, and an automatic 5-percent pay increase Jan. 1, 2012.
• Overtime pay restored for six state holidays, which the majority of CAPT members must work
  to keep their round-the-clock state facilities operating.
• Protection from minimum-wage pay or furloughs for the life of the two-year contract.

Now that is has been ratified by CAPT's membership, the contract agreement will now go to the state's Senate and Assembly as legislation, and finally on to the governor for his signature. The union's board of directors - which also serves as its bargaining team -- recommended a "support" position to its nearly 7,000 state-employed Bargaining Unit 18 members.

Members of the union include psychiatric technicians, senior psychiatric technicians and psychiatric technician assistants. Uniquely specialized in caring for people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, these licensed and certified nursing professionals provide a broad range of medical and therapeutic care to thousands of Californians in the state's developmental centers, state hospitals and prisons.

The California Association of Psychiatric Technicians is the elected union representative for 7,000 state-employed Psychiatric Technicians and related workers who provide compassionate, professional mental health and developmental services for the Californians in our care. CAPT also is the professional organization for all of California's 14,000 licensed Psychiatric Technicians.

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