Covered Services Guidelines
Under no circumstances should contracting out be considered for Covered Services unless all other options have been exhausted. Campus departments must explore all of their internal resources and make every effort to "in-source" the services before considering contracting out.
Covered Services Policies
Please review this new Blink page for assistance on covered services.
Regents Policy 5402 generally prohibits contracting out for Covered Services (all AFSCME SX and EX work). This policy is in place to protect UC employees' jobs and ensure that the university is not outsourcing essential services.
If a department believes that an exception to the policy is warranted, it must submit a Rationale for Contracting Covered Services form to Labor Relations for review and approval. The form must provide a detailed justification for the exception and explain why all other options have been exhausted.
Potential Carve Outs/Exceptions*
- Required by law, grants, and/or court decisions.
- Needed to address an emergency service
- Not available at the UCSD location, insufficient skill or technical level of expertise.
- Incidental to a leased property.
- Urgent, temporary, or occasional.
- Securing equipment, material, or services the campus cannot feasibly provide, this can include work beyond 10 miles of campus.
- Performed in clinical operations to address short-term needs.
Approval Process
A Department can only proceed with contracting out for SX or EX work after all staffing options have been determined to not be feasible and approval by the local Labor Relations Office has been received.
- The department determines if the request of service is ‘Covered Services’. If requiring assistance for determination, the department should reach out to Labor Relations and Procurement.
- Once the service is identified as a covered services, the department will fill out the Contracting Out Rationale Form for an exception and submit it to Labor Relations for approval.
- Procurement to assist with Wage Benefit Parity Appendix (WBP) form signature, if needed. WBP is required with vendor signature in compliance with the equivalent rate determined by UC Labor Relations for the current fiscal year.
- Once the Rationale form and WBP is filled and signed, attach both forms to requisition and submit for a purchase order.
Wage and Benefit Parity
Contracts for covered services must include UC employee wage and benefit parity for the contract workers providing services to UC. Parity rates are defined as the cost equivalent of the following:
- Wage Rate + Pension Rate (Pension % x Wage Rate) + Health & Welfare Composite Amount = Wage and Benefits Parity Package
- Annual and hourly salary at Step 1 of the salary range for the entry-level of the comparable UC classification (or if not entry, the most junior classification)
- UC benefits for health, dental, vision, life insurance, disability insurance, and retirement that a UC employee performing the same duties would receive (applied as a percentage of salary)
Notice to AFSCME As outlined in Section D of Article 5, UC must provide notice to AFSCME before entering into, extending, or renewing a contract that includes covered services valued at more than $100,000.*
Covered Services Rationale
If your department still intends to outsource services then this document must be completed by the requesting Department for all requests to contract out Covered Services to justify the appropriateness of the exception.
Please attach an approved copy of the Contracting Out Rationale Form when submitting your Requisition order within Oracle.
Examples of Covered Services*
- Transportation and Parking Service
- Food Services
- Security Services
- Building Maintenance (Excluding Skilled Crafts (K7) Such as Plumbing, Carpentry, and Electrical)
- Grounds or Landscaping Service; Tree Trimming, Emergency Tree Service, Field Maintenance.
- Cleaning, Custodial, Janitorial, Housekeeping Services
- Hospital and Nursing Assistants (Vocational Nursing)
- Billing and Coding Services
- Sterile Processing
- Laundry Services
- Print, Copy, Design
Resources
- Regents Policy 5402
- UC Contracting for Services Guidelines
- Visit the Title Code Search website for information on job titles
- Contracting Out Rationale form
- Questions regarding these Guidelines, the Regents Policy, and AFSCME CBA Article 5
- Main Campus: Labor Relations
- Health Sciences: Labor Relations