“To all of the nurses who’ve worked extra shifts or were redeployed to assist with the latest COVID-19 surge, I am deeply appreciative” Katherine Howell
Chief Nursing Officer University of Colorado Hospital
Exhausted, frustrated, and generally dismissed, the clinical staff of University of Colorado Hospital marched head first into the Christmas holiday season with the same resolve they have displayed for two years. The clinical staff carries on despite calls from hospitals and politicians to cap nurse wages. Despite administrator complaints that “no one wants to work.” Despite travelers’ salaries three to four times higher than the average hospital worker. Despite executive staff protecting their own compensation and raking in bonuses to the tune of $230,275. Last fall, sensing the upcoming holiday and the bleak staffing situation, University of Colorado Hospital decided to chum the waters with an extra shift commitment bonus. It worked this way: between October 17 and February 19, staff who worked additional shifts would get a tiered bonus. The employee had to fill out an online form that included this phrasing: “By submitting this form, I commit to working at least 36 hours of eligible shifts…” Along with the form, the hospital portal included a barrage of policy papers and PowerPoint presentations designed to clarify predictable confusion.
· 6 Shifts or 72 hours = $1,500
· 5 Shifts or 60 hours = $900
· 4 Shifts or 48 hours= $700
· 3 shifts or 36 hours = $500
Seems pretty straightforward, right?
Programmed complexity: Have you ever spent hours on the phone with customer support for a broken computer, dishwasher, router, or refrigerator until you get so exasperated that you just give up? That’s the point. Someone in some office factors the probability of this or that and produces a chart showing how much money an organization stands to lose or save by implementing some program. For example, does your employer offer tuition reimbursement? How easy is it to apply? Who qualifies, and who approves a candidate? How difficult is it to get your money? How many people never apply because the process is too restrictive, complicated, confusing, and/or time-consuming? Health insurance companies mastered this trick long ago.
Fighting for their bonus: WDTW talked to no less than 9 Emergency Department employees who are either not getting their bonus due to some kind of bureaucratic hurdle or are fighting with HR to properly account for their hours in order to show that they met the bonus requirement. For instance, when employees work overtime and qualify for TASC (Temporary Assigned Schedule Coverage), they have to personally email or call the TASC office to ensure they get credited for that shift. (TASC shifts are extra pay per hour on top of overtime pay.) Failure to notify the TASC office could result in workers not getting the extra cash the hospital promised. Sure, if workers can show the hospital's error, the hospital will eventually pay them. . . if they can prove the hospital’s error.
Many employees are told they’re not getting their bonus due to subtle nuances in the bonus program’s description—the legalese in the online description. Apparently, employees are supposed to verify that some bonus-killing nuance was actually spelled out in the PowerPoints. Some workers are told that due to the specific kind of differential attached to their extra shifts, those shifts don’t “count” as “extra.” This kind of weaseling is happening right and left. Folks have to do their own calculations to verify they worked the appropriate hours. They have to argue that they didn’t take a lunch this day or that. They have to notify HR that the dates HR had notated the employee as working on his/her time cards are erroneous.
So the institution that can’t figure out how to retain staff such that they’re begging workers to pick up overtime and telling them they don’t need a union is completely okay requiring the same folks to use advanced algebra to get paid. Promise a benefit, then make it too complicated to get. Hospital gets decent PR and doesn’t have to pay. Win win.
“The amount of work I hare to put into this just to get the pay they promised me is
unbelievable” -UCH RN
“I understand their frustrations but as we discussed if the time is not properly recorded, there is nothing payroll can do, and that starts with the employee.” Email from payroll to a UCH unit manager
So the desperate-for-coverage hospital promises bonuses while making requirements complicated and time-consuming for employees. What arrogance! Hospital management is literally begging employees to work overtime and throwing them scraps as incentive, then chiseling the same employees when it comes time to write some checks. How many folks picked up shifts and had to fight for their bonus? How many accepted that their shift didn’t quality and ended up giving the hospital free work?
UCH published a Super Bowl ad which charges companies anywhere from $1M and $7M while also hiring a consulting company to defend against an ongoing employee unionization campaign. How much can management get away with pissing in workers’ mouths before workers stand up and do something about it?
“We were incentivized to do these things during the holidays when we should have been home with our families, like the executives. However, due to the titanic disparity in pay and decades- long increases in cost of living, many staff members felt almost obligated to take advantage of this opportunity to maybe shine a light on what so far has been two consecutively bleak holiday seasons.” - Anonymous EDT Tech
Managements response to employee complaints has been flailing at best and dismissive at worst. Leaked emails show squabbling between middle management and the payroll department, usually ending with middle management forwarding email chains to individual employees while throwing their hands in the air and giving up. The trend here is clear: employees need to protect themselves at all times from all levels of management. For more information on UCHWU or to join the union, please go to https://www.uchwu.org/contact.
If you have stories about pay discrepancies, information about safety concerns, or any other issues you’d like to be addressed by the WDTW staff, please reach out to contactWDTW@gmail.com, or send us a facebook message @WeDoTheWork.