The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center announced that starting on Sunday it would implement an incentive pay program for its nurses that union members had already rejected.
Ohio State University Nurses Organization President Alex Watts said the union filed a grievance with the medical center.
"We're concerned with the way that this is being implemented because it does not address the needs of nurses and it definitely will not solve the problems that have been created by the administrators," Watts told WOSU.
Wexner Medical Center nurses' previous incentive program, which expired in September, paid $32 per hour to fill a vacant shift in the moment, and $40 per hour to sign up for empty shifts ahead of time. The nurses received the additional pay for taking extra shifts on top of their full-time schedules.
Watts said the incentive program helped keep staffing at safe levels, which is a requirement in nurses' contracts.
For the past month and a half, Wexner Medical Center nurses have not had an incentive program. On Thursday, the Wexner Medical Center said it would begin offering an incentive that is "twice the market rate."
Wexner Medical Center spokesperson Marti Leitch previously told WOSU that the market rate for incentive pay is $12.50 per hour.
Watts said the new incentive pay is a $25-per-hour proposal that union members already rejected. He said that in addition to offering a lower incentive, Wexner Medical Center's policy changes who can authorize incentive pay and is vague about when the pay will be offered.
"It would result in layers of bureaucracy in order for the managers who are on call — whoever the designee is — to tie an incentive to that rate," Watts said.
He said the rates used to go into effect automatically when a unit was short-staffed.
Watts said the grievance, which was filed in accordance with the union's collective bargaining agreement, asked for a hearing next week. Watts said the union has proposed a new plan with two tiers of incentives: one for every day staffing needs and another that would essentially act as manager-authorized crisis pay.
Watts suggested that understaffing is an ongoing problem at Wexner Medical Center.
"I think what is clear is that Ohio State has not taken recruitment and retention seriously enough to actually staff our hospitals as they continue to open more and more units," Watts said. "Incentive plans have historically helped meet the metrics."
The Ohio State University Nurses Organization represents about 4,200 nurses.
Wexner Medical Center set up a virtual town hall meeting to answer nurses' questions on Thursday at 3 p.m.
Watts said that aside from the meeting invitation, he had not heard anything from the medical center and that Wexner officials had not acknowledged the grievance as of Thursday afternoon.
