Nurses Vow to Press Fight for 12-Hour Work Shifts : Labor: They warn that they will seek an injunction in their battle with Ventura County Medical Center.

Nurses at the Ventura County Medical Center plan next week to ask a state court judge to prevent the hospital from eliminating 12-hour shifts, an attorney for the nurses said Friday.

About 170 medical center nurses are paid 41 hours per week for working three 12-hour shifts, a standard work schedule for nurses throughout the country, nursing supporters said.

But hospital officials have notified those nurses at the medical center that they will be switched to a fixed-rate pay scale beginning Oct. 24.

The change would mean that nurses who continue to work 12-hour shifts at the medical center no longer will be compensated with the five hours differential pay for the longer shifts.

In a letter to the county Board of Supervisors, the nurses warned that they will seek an injunction against the elimination of the 12-hour shifts. The nurses say any such changes in scheduling should be negotiated at the bargaining table, and not unilaterally decided by the hospital.

The spat over the 12-hour shifts is the latest dispute between the nurses and the hospital.

The nurses have worked without a contract since their old one expired in April. The old contract did not contain language on the 12-hour shifts, said Judith Overmyer, a nurse at the medical center and co-chairwoman of the hospital’s chapter of the California Nurses Assn.

In August, the medical center laid off nine nurses and demoted two others in what hospital administrators said was a cost-cutting move. The laid-off nurses were offered per-diem jobs, which meant they could continue to work at the facility but would lose their job benefits.

The letter sent to the Board of Supervisors left no doubt what course of action the nurses plan to follow if the hospital does not back away from its plan to go to a fixed-rate pay scale.

“Be advised that if the county goes ahead with its plan to implement the elimination of the 12-hour shift, the (union) will be forced to seek judicial relief,” said the letter from Donald W. Nielsen, a Fresno-based attorney.

In a phone interview, Nielsen said an injunction will be sought in Ventura County Superior Court by the end of next week.

Neither Pierre Durand, hospital administrator, nor other hospital officials were available for comment, Durand’s office said Friday.

Overmyer said the elimination of the 12-hour shifts would amount to a 14% pay cut for nurses at the medical center.

“Why are they trying to cut nursing salaries by 14% when no other employee group in the county is being asked to do that?” Overmyer said.

She said hospital administrators initially told nurses the moves were being made to help offset a budget deficit. But she said the hospital’s coffers were infused with a $5.1-million Medi-Cal payment last month, wiping out the deficit.

“It’s just purely financially based, and we feel now it is based in greed,” Overmyer said.

Nurses say the 12-hour shifts benefit the public because they require fewer shift changes and offer more continuity in service, which means patients are cared for by two nurses each day instead of three. They also say the shifts save the hospital money on overtime and differential pay in the long run.