Wage theft at Harbor-UCLA puts patients at risk - you can help stop it. You have the power to ensure owed bonuses for health care workers covering the Critical Care Unit are honored and disbursed immediately.

The Los Angeles County Health Agency was formed to provide health services, community wellness, and care delivery to millions of LA County residents. This mission includes Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where the daily work of health professionals makes the difference between life and death for patients in need. In order to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients, regardless of date, time of day or complexity of medical needs, all LA County Health Agency facilities provide bonuses to those covering intensive treatment assignments. Unfortunately, disbursement of owed bonuses has not happened at Harbor-UCLA. In fact, for over 6 months Harbor-UCLA has flagrantly resorted to wage theft, stealing what its employees have already earned!

In the current employment contract--which SEIU 721 members negotiated with LA County management, and which the LA County Board of Supervisors ratified--we agreed that, in order to meet the needs of patients, healthcare workers must receive additional pay for working in Step Down Critical Care Units. This happens everywhere in the LA County Health Agency! Harbor-UCLA is not exempt!

When pay discrepancies have inadvertently arisen at other LA County Health Agency facilities, administrators at those locations have worked to promptly resolve them. But on August 29, 2017, in a Third Level Grievance Hearing, CNO Pattie Soltero said wage theft at Harbor-UCLA was carried out with management's full knowledge and intent, stating, "I don't agree with the contract. You don't deserve the bonus."

Harbor-UCLA's management's willful wage theft is an attack on healthcare professionals and the patients who rely on their work. It is also an affront to the partnership SEIU 721 members forged with LA County leadership that integrated the Departments of Mental Health, Public Health, and Health Services into one Health Agency, created the Labor-Management Transformation Council, and just launched a Just Culture policy.

Harbor-UCLA, Health Agency and LA County leadership must:
- Put patients first by respecting the healthcare professionals they rely on;
- Adhere to the letter and spirit of the contract that staff follows scrupulously;
- Work with SEIU 721SEIU 721 and the other organized labor bodies that form part of the Labor-Management Partnership to resolve matters in a timely manner.

It's time to pay our healthcare professionals the Critical Care Unit bonuses they have already earned, in service to patients, without delay. It's time to act to end the wage theft at Harbor-UCLA that puts patients at risk! Our patients deserve better. Our workers deserve better. We all do.

Sincerely,