PLACENTIA/YORBA LINDA : Panel to Mediate School, Union Talks

A last effort to conclude negotiations between the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and the union representing its classified employees will take place Thursday when the two sides appear before a fact-finding panel.

Discussions between the district and California School Employees Assn. Chapter 293 stalled last May when neither side would budge on salary and health-care benefits. A state mediator declared negotiations at an impasse, a determination that requires a fact-finding hearing.

The purpose of the hearing is to evaluate the district’s financial position and determine if the contract offered by the district fairly reflects that position.

After hearing both sides present their case, the panel will make a non-binding recommendation on how to resolve the contract disputes.

The contract between the district and its 875 classified employees expired in July, 1992. Classified employees include bus drivers, secretaries and maintenance workers.

The district has offered a two-year contract that freezes salaries, eliminates two paid holidays and passes on to employees increases in the cost of health-care benefits. District officials also want to reserve the right to reopen discussion on salary if future budgets are tighter than the current one.

While the union is not seeking across-the-board salary increases, it does want to maintain so-called “step increases,” which increase salaries based on years of employment. The union also seeks a three-year contract and wants the district to pay for any increase in the cost of health-care benefits. It does not want a reopener clause.

Although employees have not voted on the district’s offer, the union’s negotiating team has “received clear direction” from its members on what they would be willing to accept, said Luci Cormier, labor relations representative for CSEA.

The contract offered to classified employees is similar to a contract approved by the teachers’ union in March. That three-year contract offered no cost-of-living adjustment and froze teachers at their current salary level.