Nurses and other healthcare workers represented by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) at nine hospitals in New Jersey approved contracts settlements that protect nurses' rights, improve patient care and working conditions, and provide retirement security for the nurses and healthcare workers.

All of the agreements include provisions for ensuring safe staffing levels for patients, improved health and safety language, retirement security, and wages that provide recognition of experience and seniority.

The contracts cover 7,000 nurses and healthcare professionals at Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital, Cooper University Hospital, Meadowlands Hospital, Palisades Medical Center, Pascack Valley Hospital, Southern Ocean County Hospital and Virtua Memorial Hospital of Mount Holly.

HPAE also successfully negotiated contract language to maintain the nurses' right to collective bargaining should the National Labor Relations Board rule that some or all of the workers are supervisors and ineligible for protections under federal labor law.

Pensions were a major issue. Union members with defined contribution pension plans won additional employer contributions. Those members with defined benefit plans agreed to maintain the plans but to reduce the multiplier and temporarily freeze contributions at current levels. Other changes were also made. At Palisades Medical Center, the defined benefit plan was retained for current employees, but new hires will only be permitted to participate in a defined contribution plan. At Pascack Valley Hospital, the defined benefit plan was retained but contributions were frozen for two years.

Retiree issues also occupied many negotiations. Union members sought to create an employer-funded medical trust (known as a voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA), which would reimburse retirees for certain out-of-pocket medical costs. Contributions are pooled to obtain a tax advantage, and retirees are able to get reimbursed up to a certain level. One hospital agreed to establish a VEBA, while others agreed to hold separate votes in six month's time.

Other highlights of the contracts include:

• Bayonne Medical Center: Wage increases of 10.8 percent over three year; longevity wage hikes averaging 1.7 percent a year; creation of a retiree medical trust funded by the hospital and jointly run by union and management that will help more than 1,200 workers pay for medical bills after they retire.
• Christ Hospital:  Wage increases totaling 13.5 percent over three years; wage increases for each shift of 6.75 percent for day shifts, 20 percent for evening/night shifts, and 40 percent for weekend shifts; the addition of two new wage steps for senior nurses; a new penalty for violating contractual staffing ratios of $5 per hour for each nurse working the shifts where a violation occurred; and the right to place literature in employees' workplace mailboxes.
• Cooper University Hospital: Front-loaded wage increases of 17 percent over three years; restrictions on who may be sent home when the hospital census is low; overtime pay for workers scheduled for 36-hour weeks; restrictions on the use of mandatory overtime.
• Meadowlands Hospital: Front-loaded wages increases totaling 14 percent over three years; two new steps for senior workers; additional pay for nurses with a BSN or MSN; and the right to vote in December 2006 on a new medical trust plan to pay for retiree health costs.
• Palisades Medical Center: Improved scheduling of per diem housekeeping, food service and nursing assistant staff; restriction of floating to certain units, with floating assignments determined by competency and training; the inclusion of sleep days as time worked when computing overtime; payroll deduction for a new retiree medical trust plan.
• Pascack Valley Hospital: Retention of the defined benefit pension plan; the right to vote in December 2006 on a new medical trust plan to pay for retiree health costs; an agreement that whenever an employee works back-to-back shifts and then is called in to work the next day, the employee receives overtime pay for second shift of the first day and a paid eight-hour sleep shift the second day.
• Southern Ocean County Hospital: Wage increases of 12 percent to 16.5 percent; an increase in the education differential to $250; union participation in the hospital's health and safety committee; seniority rights in the event of layoffs; more frequent staffing committee meetings; introduction of a new safe staffing form; and development of a pilot program to introduce additional support staff as part of an overall patient-care strategy.
• Virtua Memorial Hospital: A 14.5 percent wage increase over three years; two new wage steps for the most senior nurses; the right to vote in December 2006 on a new medical trust plan to pay for retiree health costs; a requirement that the chief nurse executive attend staffing committee meetings and formally respond to unsafe staffing complaint forms; and discussion about implementing an acuity system to improve staffing.

(posted 08/01/06)