Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and an employee union reached an agreement last week that settles three pending unfair-labor practices complaints against the hospital.

The complaints include claims that the hospital interfered with employees' rights with regard to union involvement and failed to bargain in good faith.

The hospital doesn't admit wrongdoing. However, the document requires the hospital to return to a prior method of evaluating employees and to negotiate any proposed changes to the evaluation system before using them.

The deal also requires the hospital to publish a notice promising not to threaten, interfere with, restrain or coerce employees who are union members and to release documents it had previously failed to provide to Local 1199 of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees.

"This is a major victory for us," Local 1199 negotiator Shirley Cruse said. "We've been fighting for years to get the information we need to process grievances."

Cruse said the agreement — which the National Labor Board can enforce — also serves to make the labor board aware of what she said is an increasing unwillingness on the part of the hospital administration to work cooperatively with the union.

"They are pretty much on alert now from the board that they can't keep acting this way," Cruse said. "They've got to change their behavior or there is going to be consequences."

Hospital spokesman Arturo Delgado said Monday in a written statement that the hospital denies the union's allegations. He cited a clause in the agreement that states the hospital "does not admit that it violated the National Labor Relations Act."

He also wrote the hospital agreed to the settlement to avoid litigating the issues and will engage in a contract negotiation process set to begin this month.

One of the union claims settled by the agreement involved a disputed firing of a respiratory therapist, Cruse said. In that case, she said, the hospital refused to provide case-related documentation the union needed to file a grievance. The hospital now will be required to produce those records.

Another complaint also related to the hospital's alleged refusal to produce information. In that case, Cruse said the hospital had failed to provide information regarding staffing — such as the total number of nurses hired and fired in the past year — and other data she needed to prepare for upcoming negotiations.

According to Delgado's statement, the union's claims that the hospital has failed to provide requested information are "weak." It stated if the hospital has not already provided most of the information, it either is in the process of compiling it or is seeking releases before providing confidential information.

"It is our hope that the union will honor such confidentiality agreements and pursue less expensive and less time consuming means of resolution," Delgado wrote.

The part of the agreement that requires the hospital to revert back to its previous method of evaluating employees settles an allegation that the hospital had changed the system without negotiating with the union. Cruse said the new method would have tied employee pay raises to subjective and vague benchmarks over which employees had little control.

The settlement requires the hospital to post a notice around the hospital and online within 14 days, for a period of 60 days. The notice contains basic language reinforcing the rights of union members as well as more specific language directly related to the allegations in the three complaints.

One of the 11 statements contained in the notice reads, "We will not threaten you by inviting you to quit your employment because you selected the Union as the exclusive collective bargaining representative or by telling you that it is futile for you to select the Union to represent you with respect to your wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment."

View the entire notice — which contains all the terms of the agreement — at www.christuslaboractionsantafe.org. On the right-hand side of the homepage, click on Christus Settlement Agreement. Employee rights are listed toward the bottom of the document.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.