United Public Employees (UPE) met with Merced County Department of Public Health on October 16, 2025, to discuss concerns raised about changes to the duties of employees in the Medical Claims Clerk classification.  During this meeting, it was reported that duties were being affected due to the implementation of an electronic software system, CureMD. The County acknowledged that the implementation of CureMD involves a structural change to how billing and related functions and

On October 16, 2024, United Public Employees (UPE) met with the Merced County Human Services Agency (HSA) to discuss updated operational directives: Directive #79 covering Work Schedules and Directive #48 covering Time and Attendance Reporting. Directive #79 outlines policies for regular work shifts, alternate work schedules (AWS), split shifts, and telework. During the meet and confer, UPE proposed several changes to protect flexibility and fairness for employees. First, UPE

United Public Employees (UPE) met with Merced County on October 7, 2025, to discuss the County’s proposed Telework Policy. During this meeting, UPE proposed several significant changes to make the policy fairer and more practical for employees. The County agreed to many of these proposals, which resulted in key improvements to the final version of the policy. UPE proposed that employees be allowed to telework in consecutive days, removing the previous restriction that prevent

On October 10, 2025, UPE met with Merced County's Department of Public Works to discuss two proposed policies that affect our members: the Animal Feeding Policy and the After-Hours Worksite Access Policy. The Animal Feeding Policy, as proposed by the County, would ban employees from feeding any animals—stray, wild, or domestic—on County property or anywhere in the public right-of-way. That includes feeding cats, dogs, birds, or leaving out food or water dishes near buildings

United Public Employees (UPE) met with Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS)  on October 6, 2025 , to discuss the County’s proposed Bilingual Standards Policy . This policy outlines when employees qualify for bilingual pay and how bilingual assignments are determined. During the meeting, UPE strongly objected  to language in the draft policy that would have allowed the County to require employees who are not receiving the bilingual differential  to prov

Merced County has announced that health insurance premiums will rise in general by approximately 13.9% in 2026. This increase is due to...

United Public Employees (UPE) recently met and conferred with Merced County Department of Public Health on August 19, 2025, to discuss...

On July 28, 2025, United Public Employees (UPE) met and conferred with Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) ...

UPE met with the Merced County Department of Administrative Services on July 28, 2025, to review the proposed Workplace Violence...

On June 19, 2025, UPE met and conferred with the Merced County Probation Department regarding two policy updates. The first policy, for...

On June 17 and June 20, 2025, UPE met and conferred with the Merced County District Attorney’s Office regarding proposed updates to their...

On June 13, 2025, UPE met and conferred with Merced County Department of Human Services about changes to Operations Directive #26 – a...

On May 20, 2025, UPE met with Merced County to discuss changes to the Office Assistant (OA) job classifications. The County has made...

On February 24, 2025, United Public Employees (UPE) had a meet and confer with the County of Merced Department of the Registrar of Voters...

On June 3, 2025, United Public Employees (UPE) met for a second time with Merced County’s Department of the Tax Collector to discuss the...

UPE met with Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services on June 3, 2025, regarding the proposed policy for the workplace...

UPE met with the Assessors and Clerk Recorders Office on May 27, 2025, regarding the proposed policy for the workplace violence...

On May 16, 2025, United Public Employees (UPE) met with Merced County’s Tax Collector’s Office to discuss proposed updates to the...

On May 16, 2025, United Public Employees (UPE) met with Merced County’s Human Services Agency (HSA) to discuss proposed updates to...

On April 18, 2025, UPE met with the Merced County Library Department to discuss the Workplace Violence Prevention Program (WVPP),...