As the health care world grapples with severe staffing shortages, Vermont’s largest hospital has unveiled a plan to stanch nurse resignations by raising their pay.
The pay boosts take effect immediately, with the blessing of the nurses union, the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. Management and labor will negotiate the rest of the contract this spring.
However, the pay increases are final, whether or not nurses approve the final contract, UVM Medical Center’s leader said on Monday.
“Getting the wage increases now, we’re hopeful, will help retain our staff, help us recruit new staff and build strong momentum going into negotiations,” said Stephen Leffler, president and chief operating officer.
It’s an unusual move on management’s part, but the hospital needs the nurses to stay open. A lack of nurses can mean canceled or delayed surgeries, and more medical mistakes and patient deaths.
The nurses’ union ratified the raises on Friday. Under the agreement, nurses will receive a 10% bump in pay from now until next October. Wages will increase 5% a year in October 2022 and October 2023, hospital leaders said.
Union president Deb Snell said the bump in pay is a win for the union, but cautioned that other big items, including working conditions and pandemic protocols, still need to be worked out.
“Anything right now to help stabilize our workforce is so important,” Snell said. “It’s heartbreaking to see how many of my own colleagues are leaving to go travel. You know, friends who I’ve worked with for 20 years are leaving our organization to travel.”
Hospitals across the country have been hiring travel nurses to fill gaps in their staff, but that’s expensive — travel nurses can earn double and triple what local nurses are paid. Now, average pay for a nurse at UVM Medical Center is about $30 per hour.
The union represents about 2,000 nurses. The union also represents about 600 technicians, whose contract is negotiated separately. The current agreement, however, grants about two-thirds of those technicians $5,000 bonuses in the meantime.
Amending a contract midstream is an unusual move, but UVM Medical Center executives are betting that boosting pay now will help reduce the dependence on costly temporary staff. The plan comes as UVM Medical Center’s Burlington hospital’s nursing staff has shrunk to the smallest it’s been in recent years, hospital and union leaders said.
The nurses’ contract is slated to expire in July. If the contract lapsed, the nurses could strike, as they did in 2018, when a two-day strike cost the hospital about $3 million.
Leffler said the pay agreement is an important first step to creating stability in what has become a volatile labor market.
Hospital leaders offered nurses similar raises in December as part of a three-year contract that would have barred subsequent bargaining on other issues. The nurses rejected that proposal.
Negotiations over the full contract are slated for spring.
Clarification: An earlier version of this article overstated how many technicians are eligible for $5,000 bonuses.
