After announcing yesterday that contract negotiations with its nurses union have reached an impasse, the Indiana Regional Medical Center says it has informed the IRNA/PSEA that it is “implementing certain components of its Last, Best, and Final Offer”. The union rejected that offer on Monday and made its own counteroffer, which IRMC called “a regressive bargaining proposal”.
The specific elements of the Last, Best, and Final Offer that will be applied to union members are:
- Changes to the nurses’ paid time off benefits, which the hospital says will bring it “more in line with industry standards.”
- Having overtime begin after forty hours of work in a work week, in line with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
- Changes to health insurance following IRMC’s open enrollment period in May, to take effect July 1st. Currently, IRMC’s 380 union nurses pay less for healthcare than the rest of the hospital’s 1,100 employees.
IRMC says a 6.5 percent wage increase spread over three years will not be implemented or take effect until after a contract settlement is reached.
The changes are scheduled to take effect on April 7th. The Last, Best, and Final Offer was put forward on February 18th, and the two sides have met twice since for negotiations. IRMC spokesman Mark Richards said in a news release this morning that “After contemplating the union’s regressive position on Monday evening, it became clear that (IRMC) saw no other option than to implement these changes.”
