Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 21, 1992                   TAG: 9203210326
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KRIS BANVARD
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VA DIRECTOR AGREES TO NEGOTIATE ON TESTS

Alma Lee, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local, said she received a memo from VA Medical Center Director Clark Graninger saying that testing will be delayed as of Monday to allow the administration and the union to negotiate on how testing will be carried out.

"We see this as a positive action as to solving one of our many problems," Lee said.

The union had tried to stop testing, asking instead that a continuing education program be put into place. If the administration insists on having competency tests, Lee said, the union's position is that the terms and conditions of the tests must be negotiated.

Competency tests were started as one way of ensuring quality patient care, medical center officials have said. Test results would help management in making work assignments.

Also Friday, Lee said that the VA Central Office in Washington, D.C., has denied the union's request that its representatives be made a part of the team investigating allegations of mismanagement at the Salem medical center.

Starting Monday, a department review team from Washington will begin investigating charges of low employee morale, stressful working conditions and deteriorating patient care. The review is to start less than two weeks before the dedication of a new $55 million building at the center.

The union at the Salem medical center counts as its members 600 of the center's nearly 1,000 non-supervisory and non-management employees, both professionals and non-professionals.