The current yearly vacation bidding process was created during the 2000
contract negotiations
Was enhanced during the 2003 & 2006 contract negotiations
Protects against management favoring or discriminating against individuals
Enables pharmacists to plan securely for vacations
Ensures ability to take extended vacations
Retains value for seniority in vacation bidding
Enhances vacation availability for lower seniority pharmacists
Vacation/PTO
Granted on the basis of operational availability
Operational availability is a purely management decision
Number of pharmacists at any operationally available is a purely
management decision
Blackout periods for vacation/PTO may be created because of operational
necessity
PTO cannot be traded or bequeathed
PTO cannot be sold except to Kaiser as PTO buyback
PTO may be donated under special circumstances
Yearly Bidding –round one
Rotation by seniority
Each pharmacist has the calendar for 48 hours
Proxies allowed
Bid as blocks
A block is any contiguous set of days
May start on any day of the week
A single block includes ALL days between the start date and the end date
without regard to schedule or holidays
Holidays during a block are included within the block, but will not be
charged from PTO bank
Must include regular days off within the block, although days off will not
be charged from PTO bank
Multiple pharmacists may sign up for the same full or partial blocks as
alternates
Some alternates may not be able to make irrevocable plans until the
final schedule for that period has been posted. Number of provisional and
approved is dependent on facility and manager.
Available PTO is calculated as of the date the block starts
Example: if you have 120 hours PTO in April and will acquire 80 hours
more by September you can take a block of 3 weeks (120 hours) in April
and another block of 2 weeks (80 hours) in September
Options
Up to 2 blocks, total time limited only by available PTO OR
Up to 4 blocks, total time not to exceed 4 calendar weeks
(28 days)
Does not matter whether full or part time
Example 1: take four blocks of 1 week each
Example 2: take two blocks of 1 week each and one block of 2 weeks
Example 3: take three blocks of 1 DAY each and one block of 3 weeks
Always a good idea to remind scheduler of regular days/weekends off, a
new scheduler might schedule you on a day or weekend you are normally off
if they aren’t aware
Must have or acquire PTO to bid
Leave With Out Pay (LWOP) may not be used for bidding or for time off
Short hour pharmacists do not have PTO, can’t bid
On call don’t need to bid, they can take off whenever they want
Scheduled PTO days not canceled at least 6 weeks prior to designated
starting date must be taken.
Exception may be made for illness, bereavement, and natural disaster
2) A block can only be cancelled in its entirety or cancelled by
consecutive days at the beginning and/or at the end. One block can't be
converted into multiple blocks
Canceled scheduled PTO will be handled as additional available PTO time
Yearly Bidding –round two
A second round of bidding is required by the contract
No limitations on second round bids, except PTO availability
Unlimited in number of blocks bid.
Total days may not exceed amount of PTO available by date PTO to be used.
No LWOP or "going negative."
How much time each pharmacist gets for second round bidding is up to
local manager
Second round bid period may be as long as days or as short as 10 minutes.
Proxies allowed
Ad Hoc requests
Yearly bidding always has priority
First come, first served
By date of submission
No limit to how early requests are made
No seniority involved
All requests must be in no later than 3 weeks before a new schedule
starts
Time not guaranteed until final schedule is posted