Your MOU Defined - Public

YOUR MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) DEFINED

Your leadership and staff frequently speak about your MOU, citing the correct MOU provisions is required in a grievance, and you are each given a copy of the MOU, which some members have never read and understood thoroughly.  But what is the MOU and why is it so important to your employment with the City?

Your MOU, negotiated on your behalf by EAA, is an enforceable contract between each employee covered by a particular MOU and the City of Los Angeles.  As with any contract, the parties negotiate the provisions so that each party both gives and receives something of value.  On the very basic level, employees receive job stability, predictable wages, and explicitly defined benefits while the City receives known labor and benefit costs for its budgeting, labor peace for a defined length of time, management rights clauses, and a procedure for handling employee complaints (grievances).  While the number of subjects covered is much larger than detailed here, the basic mutual benefits are evident.

When the EAA and management negotiating teams meet to negotiate an MOU, there is an obvious basic difference in agenda, defined here for clarity.  The Union, on behalf of its members, wishes to achieve the maximum job security, highest wages, and most generous benefits possible while management wants to keep labor and benefit costs as low as possible and have as much unilateral control over its workers as it can.  This is why labor negotiations in any workplace, public or private, seem contentious at times.  Mutual Gains Bargaining arose in an attempt to defuse some of the contentiousness.  Of course, it only works if both parties are truly interested in assuring that the other side gains something of value, a difficult concept for some management’s negotiators.

Some provisions of your MOU protect you on a daily basis but many employees simply assume that things are just the way things are supposed to be and do not understand what limits management’s ability to control its employees.  One of the most important consequences of the MOU is that the City MUST bargain with EAA prior to ANY change in your wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.  Of course, employees must understand all the terms and conditions before they can recognize a change.  It is incumbent on the members of EAA to immediately notify the union of any perceived violation to ensure timely intervention and solution.

We encourage every EAA member to thoroughly read your MOU and the applicable portions of the Los Angeles Administrative Code, including the Civil Service Rules.  With the raised awareness this brings, EAA has more eyes and ears in the workplace to ensure a satisfying job experience.