Chancellor Block, IVC & CFO Baird-James, and AVC Beck sent the following message to the UCLA leadership community.
• Regents Policy 5402 generally prohibits contracting for services and functions that can be performed by University staff.
• University departments are prohibited from signing contracts for covered services and must involve Campus or Health Purchasing when contracting for covered services.
• Visit the UCLA Campus Outsourcing for Covered Services and UCLA Health Outsourcing for Covered Services web pages for complete details.
Dear Colleagues:
We want to remind you of the requirements noted in University policies and procedures designed to protect against excessive outsourcing.
Article 5 and Regents Policy 5402
The University of California (UC) is committed to promoting a strong in-house workforce, as evidenced in Article 5 (PDF) of the collective-bargaining agreements between the University and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In November 2019, the UC Board of Regents approved Regents Policy 5402, which generally prohibits contracting for services and functions that can be performed by University staff. This applies to all new and existing contracts for covered services.
Covered services are defined as work customarily performed by AFSCME Service Unit and Patient Care Technical bargaining unit employees. The Regents policy describes covered services as services for cleaning, custodial, janitorial or housekeeping services; food services; laundry services; groundskeeping; transportation and parking services; security services; billing and coding services; sterile processing; hospital or nursing assistant services; and medical imaging or other medical technician services. (Visit the Title Code Search website for information on job titles.)
Please remember: University departmental buyers are prohibited from signing contracts for covered services. Buyers must involve Campus or Health Purchasing when seeking to contract out for certain covered services.
Notice to AFSCME
As outlined in Section D of Article 5, UC must provide notice to AFSCME before entering into, extending or renewing a contract that includes covered services valued at more than $100,000.
Wage and Benefit Parity
As outlined in Section B of Article 5, all contracts that include covered services shall require the contractor to provide its service employees and any contracted individuals who work at University locations (including properties that the University has leased from or to a third-party and public private partnerships) with wages and benefits of equivalent value to those provided to UC bargaining unit employees performing the same or similar work at the location.
Exceptions
A UCLA Campus and UCLA Health working group has been assembled to review exception requests. Departments that request an exception should contact outsourcing-escalations@finance.ucla.edu or the UCLA Health Covered Services team.
Compliance
Compliance with Article 5 and the University’s contracting out policy is a top priority. We appreciate your support in keeping UCLA in compliance with Article 5. Visit the UCLA Campus Outsourcing for Covered Services and UCLA Health Outsourcing for Covered Services web pages for important resources and answers to common questions.
Sincerely,
Gene D. Block
Chancellor
Allison Baird-James
Interim Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer
Michael J. Beck
Administrative Vice Chancellor
