Nurses, Hospital Reach Tentative Pay Agreement

Nurses and administrators at Ventura County Medical Center have reached a tentative pay agreement that could end a bitter two-month dispute involving overtime for 12-hour shifts.

Although details of the tentative accord were not released, nurses said that the proposal provides for pay comparable to that they now receive.

The nurses are scheduled to vote on the proposal at a union meeting Monday. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will consider the matter at its meeting Tuesday.

Representative from both sides said Friday that they were pleased with the tentative agreement.

“I think it’s a valid offer,” said Patricia Knight, president of the nurses chapter of the Public Employees Assn. of Ventura County. “I’m personally pleased with it, and I’m hoping the membership will be too.”

Pierre Durand, administrator of the medical center, said: “It is something everyone should feel happy with.”

Overtime for the 12-hour shifts has been the center of controversy since the topic first came up in August.

Hospital officials had said they wanted to switch the 115 nurses who work 12-hour shifts to a fixed-rate pay scale because it would put the salaries more in line with those at other hospitals.

They proposed doing away with overtime pay and increasing the hourly wage from $16.86 to $18.73.

But nurses, who receive four hours of overtime pay for each 12-hour shift, said they average $19.67 an hour when overtime is figured in. Elimination of the overtime pay would create a financial burden, they said, because they have planned their mortgages and household budgets around the higher wage for years.

Both sides met several times with a state mediator, but the talks stalled.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors ordered the nurses and hospital officials back into negotiations. After a lengthy meeting, the tentative pay agreement was hammered out.

From the start, nurses have protested by wearing red ribbons pinned to their badges. During their lunch breaks, the nurses picketed outside the hospital on Loma Vista Road in Ventura.

Privately, they talked about going on strike.

“The nurses were ready to do what needed to be done to keep from getting a pay cut,” said Judith Overmyer, an intensive care nurse. “I really don’t think the county understood exactly what they were coming up against.”

She said she is glad the dispute appears to be over.

“We feel that both sides are in a win-win situation,” she said. “There seems to be a compromise. We don’t think we’ve lost anything in this bargain.”