RNs in Chemung, Chenango Counties get new pay
differentials
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Many PEF nurses in Chemung and Chenango Counties saw significant boosts in their
pay in May after new geographic and increased shift differentials kicked in.
These differentials range from $4,500 to $7,000 annually and took effect
retroactive to March 29, along with increased hiring rates, which were also
approved.
Big pay day in Chemung
In Chemung County members at all state agencies who are in the titles of nurse
1, nurse 2, community mental health nurse, nurse 3 and nurse administrator are
receiving a new $4,500 geographic pay differential.
And if they are regularly assigned to work evenings or nights, their good news
didn’t stop there. The existing differential for those shifts went from $400 for
both shifts to $5,000 for the evening shift, and $7,000 for the night shift. So,
a nurse on the night shift, for example, just got a combined boost of $11,000.
New state hires into those titles in Chemung will get an extra $4,996 to $5,988,
depending on the title.
Equal
at last in Chenango
In Chenango County, the differentials were approved for eight permanent nurse
positions that had been left out of a similar pay boost that was authorized
several years earlier for the same dollar amounts and titles. The objective
being to ensure that these nursing positions are paid on the same basis as the
others.
“They’re very happy,” PEF Region 5 Coordinator Mary Twitchell said of the eight
Chenango County members affected.
The hiring rates for any new nurses who fill future vacancies in those jobs in
Chenango County were boosted by $4,996 to $5,988, depending on the title.
Twitchell, who still has nurses in some other parts of her region who do not
receive pay differentials, said, “It’s good for those who get it, but it’s ugly
for those who don’t.”
Responding to labor market
The differentials and hiring rate boosts are not something the union can
negotiate.
They are authorized by the state Department of Civil Service and the Division of
the Budget to address recruitment and retention problems in very specific
titles, on specific shifts and at specific work sites by making the pay more
competitive in the local labor market. Once authorized, the differentials are
rarely decreased or withdrawn, but they can be at any time.
Spotlighting the inequity
Although PEF cannot bargain for these differentials, it can advocate and that’s
just what it has been doing.
PEF President Ken Brynien credited “PEF’s relentless advocacy for nursing
professionals in the Elmira and Binghamton regions” with spurring this action by
the state.
Twitchell said Region 5 nurses mobilized around this issue that has become so
divisive for them — writing letters, wearing stickers and demonstrating their
united desire to be treated equally.
Bonnie
Wood, council leader of PEF Division 223 at Elmira Psychiatric Center, was
deeply involved in helping to mobilize her members and other nurses in Region 2.
Wood said Elmira PC, prisons and other state agencies employing nurses in
Chemung County were hit hard when the differentials were authorized several
years ago for nurses in Broome and Chenango Counties.
“It really hurt us. We’ve been losing about 80 percent of our nurses,” Wood
said. “The pay difference was so great, you couldn’t blame them for moving. We
were training new nurses and then losing them. It really affected our service
here.”
The chronic loss of staff fueled short-staffing and mandatory overtime problems.
Teamwork did it
Wood said her division members worked with nurses at the other Chemung County
facilities to circulate petitions and write letters to legislators, state
commissioners and the governor to draw attention to their plight.
State Sen. George Winner Jr. and Assembly Member Tom O’Mara were enlisted in
their cause. O’Mara, Wood said, came to a Region 2 nurses meeting to hear
firsthand about problems and the resentment the pay disparity caused.
“Management at our facility was very helpful in submitting all of the records
and data to support the recruitment and retention problem here,” Wood said.
“This was very much a team effort,” she said, crediting PEF field representative
Lynn Tucker, Susan Mitnick and other PEF Civil Service Enforcement Department
staff.
“We didn’t leave anything to chance.”
The success of their mobilization is a tremendous morale boost for the nurses
and the division.
“Our nurses are seeing a big difference in their paychecks,” Wood said. “They
saw what we could accomplish when we all work as a team. We have learned not to
give up.”
The Communicator June 2007
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