Nurses Lose Ruling in Bid to Keep Shifts

Some nurses at the Ventura County Medical Center who have been working 12-hour shifts will be placed on eight-hour shifts beginning Sunday.

The nurses had asked a Ventura County judge to prevent the hospital from making the switch, but Superior Court Judge John J. Hunter denied the request Thursday, an attorney for the nurses said Friday.

Attorney Donald W. Nielsen said the nurses will try to have the judge’s decision thrown out.

“We may be able to go forward and have the decision overturned, but a lot depends on how the judge worded the decision,” said Nielsen, who has not seen the ruling.

Ventura County Medical Center officials could not be reached for comment. Union representative said that about 170 medical center nurses are paid for 41 hours per week for working three 12-hour shifts.

By changing the nurses’ schedules to fixed-rate eight-hour shifts, they said, the nurses will in effect receive a 14% pay cut.

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, which is one of the reasons the hospital could change the shifts without consulting the union, Hunter ruled.

The nurses have complained that they are the only employee group in the county government that has been asked to take a pay cut.