An administrative law judge from the National Labor Relations Board has ordered Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services to execute an agreement it reached with SEIU-UHW in 2014.
In a complaint filed with the NLRB, the union claimed it reached an agreement with Prime in November 2014 on all of the substantive and material terms of a collective bargaining agreement for 1,100 employees at Encino (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center, Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Calif., and Garden Grove (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center. After terms of the deal were set, Prime failed to execute the collective bargaining agreement, according to SEIU-UHW.
Prime disputed the union's claims and argued the parties never agreed on the material terms of the collective bargaining agreement and execution of an agreement was contingent on certain factors that were not met.
The administrative law judge sided with the union and ordered Prime to execute the agreement. Prime has 21 days to submit its plan to comply with the NLRB decision.
Prime was not pleased with the outcome of the case. "Prime Healthcare disagrees with the ruling of the administrative law judge and will appeal the decision to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C.," said Elizabeth Nikels, spokeswoman for Prime. The hospital network maintains that the parties never reached an agreement. "In fact, the evidence before the administrative law judge included an e-mail from the union's chief negotiator stating that the parties had never finalized the agreement," said Ms. Nikels.
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