Transferring to another Kaiser Hospital

**NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN** · Aug 17, 2017

You keep all your benefits. You SHOULD keep your seniority however if you transfer from a hospital that has one contract to another with a different contract you might lose your seniority. For example, I'm in Sacramento and I work with a couple nurses who transferred from San Diego. They lot all their seniority with the transfer because CNA is a different contract then whoever was their union in San Diego. Sort of sucks.

Faith_n_God · Aug 17, 2017

Thanks... does that mean I still keep my seniority during vacation bidding? ( granted it's the same union)

**NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN** · Aug 18, 2017

Yes you should.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Aug 26, 2017

If you are going from a Kaiser North to another Kaiser North it's a seamless transfer . If you are going from North to south or vice versa benefits change and so does pay. Seniority does not change because your date of hire is still the same. You will bump somebody down.

**NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN** · Sep 7, 2017

I was told something different. A couple RNs who had been working at kaiser for ged from south to north and they said they lost about 10 years of seniority with the move because it was a different union....I thought they weren't telling the truth until I got better schedules then them and they were lower on seniority list Lame.

Sbryce · Sep 11, 2017

I work for Kaiser in socal and am planning to transfer to NorCal. I spoke to my union and I will lose all seniority with job bids and holidays vacations etc. my hire date stays the same and vacation sick leave etc transfers. Hope that helps.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Sep 11, 2017

You gals are both right. My friend transferred from San Diego to Norcal recently and date of hire of course is the same but not on the higher pecking order as she found out after telling me that information. That is lame.

**NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN** · Sep 15, 2017

It's because they're different unions. Hubby wants to move back to Southern California and the loss of seniority plus the pay cut is a hard pill to swallow.

kisianik · Sep 16, 2017

OK, let me chip in and clarify a few things.

I am working for Kaiser Sunset for almost 15 years, our place went through multiple unions already and I was in union business for a while, so I know all perks first hand.

Seniority. If you transfer between Kaiser hospital with the same union. You keep your Kaiser seniority - important for raises and vocation accumulation, and in case of lay offs, it is done based on Kaiser seniority. To my best memory, when in the 90' Sunset Kaiser laid off bunch of nurses, it was done based on 10 years Kaiser seniority. Union department seniority will put on hold for one year, meaning that you would not able to bump anyone within your first year of transfer, but later you would. When applying for transfer for an open position, first priority is given to nurses within the same location, second outside nurses with the same union, third nurses with Kaiser seniority, forth everybody else.

If you transfer from different union Kaiser hospital, you keep only Kaiser seniority and perks associated with it.

guest769224 · Sep 17, 2017

Is it really that difficult to be hired by Kaiser as an outside applicant?

kisianik · Sep 17, 2017

Is it really that difficult to be hired by Kaiser as an outside applicant?

It is possible. I know there is an new employee orientation right now every 2 weeks. However, Kaiser's tactics (for outsiders) are to hire per Diem first, than, if qualified, offer full time. So if you are ready for this hiring track, you have a chance.

Any Kaiser facility in California offers very good benefits. Short summary for health:

Doctor visit $5

Any prescription medication through Kaiser pharmacy $5

Over the counter meds, certain % off

hospital stay - free

A lot of tests, like MRI, CT and XRAY are free

Lately, in new contract (Kaiser Sunset) Emergency now went up to $50

Not bad Union protection, 4 disciplinary levels with #5 termination. If you got, for an example, level 1 and survived one year without incidents, this level 1 will be automatically erased and if you get the same problem on 1 year plus 1 day, you still will get level 1 and so on.

Plus recent pay increase. I don't have contract now to produce numbers, but can say only about 10 year seniority pay for Med Surge about $60/hr, Tele about $1 more, ICU another $1 more approximately, MAX after 25 years around $80-85/hr. Those numbers are for Southern California, Northern even more. And 2.5% raise every year or something like this, can be wrong here, but not less than.