In this issue:

• In case you missed it: New incentive MOU
• Meet your new WSNA Secretary
• Other updates
  • Genesis/Kronos transition concerns
  • Payroll codes
  • STCU member paycheck delays
  • Certification premiums
  • Staffing – A continuing concern and issue
• Committee updates
• Treasurer report from Rian Williams, WSNA Treasurer
• Grievance Corner from your WSNA Grievance Officer Wendy McNairy, RN, ECT unit

WSNA Café time is coming! Save the date for Aug. 18 0700-0900, 1400-1600. We will be in the cafeteria and would love to meet with you. Come say hi.

In case you missed it: New incentive MOU

On July 19, a new Incentive Pay MOU was signed by WSNA and SHMC Management. Please read the MOU which is posted to the local unit web page.

The MOU provides lump-sum incentive bonuses (which we have confirmed are taxed according to bonus rates) for 8, 10 and 12 hours shifts, with an added incentive for night shift. Despite multiple counters from the WSNA Officer Team, management did not elect to include 4-hour blocks in the bonus structure.

Important things to consider:

1. Record ANY AND ALL incentive shifts you work and keep a paper trail (preferably email confirmation) if you pre-schedule shifts with your manager that qualify for a bonus. If picking up via IRC text message, keep a list of those dates and times and send them to your ANM/Manager. Managers have been issued a spreadsheet to fill in this data on, which will be submitted by them to payroll each pay period. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED you send the list you keep to your manager to ensure they are included on the spreadsheet.
2. MONITOR YOUR PAYCHECKS. Please reach out to your manager/payroll if you think there is an error. Please also let WSNA officers or the rep know of those issues, and if they are resolved.

Meet your new WSNA Secretary

Please welcome Jennifer Haines BSN, RN NICU as your new WSNA Secretary. Jen was appointed to the final opening left on the officer team, meaning our team is fully staffed and ready for negotiations this coming fall. Jen has been very active with union activity and nursing leadership in the past: UBC chair for 6 years, Nurse Council for 3 years, and currently Staffing Committee. She has been with Providence for 13 years and has experience in ortho, and now in NICU.

Other updates:

Genesis/Kronos transition concerns
Your WSNA officer team has been in frequent contact with management regarding the many concerns we have heard regarding the transition to Genesis. We have requested they send out a house-wide email to all staff regarding these concerns. We have also requested they provide an email explaining how to fill out an HR ticket, for those employees affected by any changeover issues. Please be on the lookout for any discrepancies in accrued PTO, EIT, Seniority Hours, and Date of Employment in both Kronos and Genesis.

If there is a concern regarding an FTE position being inappropriately awarded based on incorrect seniority, nurses need to ask their manager for this information, who then can connect with an HR generalist who can run a report in real time to identify those balances.

Payroll codes
In regard to new payroll codes, overtime codes in particular, your officers raised the issue of Genesis’ new complexity with pay breakdown. HR noted there is an “Understanding Your Pay Slip” learning guide on the Genesis SharePoint, but the officer team pointed out that information is fairly basic and doesn’t help the caregiver understand the details of the pay codes and the possible impacts they have on pay. Information is still pending regarding the details of this issue from management.

STCU member paycheck delays
When brought up to management, your WSNA officer team was informed that the ministry has sent out a communication to affected caregivers regarding the paycheck delays to STCU members. They assured us that redeposits of paychecks should have been sent by Friday 7/15. Please reach submit an HR ticket if you have not already received your paycheck as soon as possible.

Certification premiums
We had received notice that nurses’ certification premiums were being randomly dropped from paychecks. Certifications that qualify for premium pay are submitted through the HR Portal and verified by an individual with support documentation, and approved through their expiration, or denied. HR has assured us that once approved, it should not be removed until it lapses due to expiration and the nurse fails to renew it, but we continue to hear from nurses that their unexpired certifications have been dropped. Please double check your paychecks to ensure your unexpired certs are still receiving premium, and if it is missing, submit an HR ticket ASAP. We are pushing on management for information on how nurses can receive retroactive pay if the cert was dropped in error but have not heard back as of yet.

Staffing – A continuing concern and issue
Your officers continue to raise concerns of the staffing crisis to management at every Conference Committee. During our June meeting, we had suggested that perhaps visitors could be liberalized a bit more to allow family members access to loved ones to possibly help with ADLs, if staff were unable to assist in time. Management appreciated this suggestion, noting it was an idea worth exploring, and it was taken back to the Inland Northwest Washington Committee that Neil Christopher Apeles, CNO sits on, which decides visitation policy specifics. Currently to our knowledge no action has been taken with this suggestion, although HR notes exceptions can always be made for confused patients or those who really need family presence at bedside.

Officers continue to strongly urge management to open regular email communication with staff regarding efforts being made to improve staffing. This would also hopefully include a method for staff to offer solutions and have open conversations. Management continues to try to conceptualize what this would look like, with no details yet.

Please continue to fill out Staffing Analysis Forms located on the SHMC intranet (As opposed to the ADOs from the WSNA website). Include any and all specifics of how short staffing (or high acuity) impacted your patient care, such as falls, lack of toileting, late meds, etc.

Staffing Committee update from Nonie Kingma RN, AGPU, Staffing Committee Chair

As many of you know the Staffing Committee submitted a formal complaint to the DOH requesting that they investigate SHMC due to non-compliance with our staffing law. They declined to investigate stating that they were not allowed to due to the "unforeseen emergency circumstances" we are in r/t COVID-19. We responded to them that we disagreed and asked about an appeal. They said there was no appeal process.

Next, we reached out to Katharine Weiss, WSNA legislative liaison. Through her we were able to contact Rep. Riccelli to ask for his assistance. Katharine met with Riccelli and other legislators to bring our concerns forward. Katharine was advised to bring our issue with the DOH and their refusal to investigate, to the legal counsel of the House of Representatives. The House legal counsel, unfortunately, agreed that the DOH does not need to investigate due to our "unforeseen emergency" and that they do not have to offer any way to appeal.

We have also written a letter to Governor Inslee and have not as yet received a reply. Attached is the letter to the Governor for your perusal. Read the full letter submitted to the Governor’s office, which is posted to the local unit web page.

While we are disappointed in the responses we have received thus far we are in no way discouraged from continuing our efforts. Even though we have not gotten the answers we wanted, we are "making noise" and the more noise that we, and you, and so many others make, the harder it will be to ignore us. So it is not for naught. We will continue to evaluate our voice on this issue, and want to stress this is the critical reason we need better staffing legislation in Washington State.

Please keep the Nurse Staffing Analysis forms coming! That is a powerful way that you can continue to "make noise". And BTW, if you could please use the NSA forms and NOT the Assignment Despite Objection forms from the WSNA website that would be most helpful to us. The ADO forms are very slow because we have to manually send them to the different places they need to go whereas the NSA forms go to the Staffing Committee and to managers automatically. The NSA forms are on the SHMC intranet. Please ask a colleague if you are unsure how to find them. Instructions for finding them on the intranet are also pinned to the top of the 8th Ave Nurses FB page.

Treasurer Report from Rian Williams BSN, RN, RNC, WSNA Treasurer

What many WSNA nurses don’t know, or realize, is that 4% of the dues that are paid to WSNA each month, are returned to the local unit in the form of a Local Unit Fund account held by WSNA to support the actives of the local unit. The WSNA Cabinet has indicated the funds can be used by members to promote membership, educational activities, contract administration, internal communications engage in public relations activities, support their officers and negotiating team.

If you are interested in obtaining reimbursement for a WSNA activity of the local unit, contact a local unit officer, or your Nurse Rep to find out how.

Funds status: as of July 2022

• Total Local Unit Funds amount = $85,714.63
• Incoming dues each month = $4,000 on average
• Ongoing Local Unit Expenses =
  • Voice Tel - $25..88/month
  • Storage Unit - $84/month
  • Labor Council Dues = $227.50/month
• Other officer related expenses since the month of May.
  • There have been no additional expenses for this time frame.

To see a full breakdown of deposits and usage, use the link buttons below.

Grievance Corner from your WSNA Grievance Officer Wendy McNairy, RN, ECT unit

grievance.officer.wsna.shmc@gmail.com

Current Grievances:

Currently, there are 10 grievances in process. Only grievances that are filed on behalf of the whole local unit are disclosed here. Grievances involving discipline, termination or are filed for a personal reason are considered confidential.

Richter and All Affected - Management in the Peds Surgery Center is telling Supplemental nurses that in order to fulfill their obligations of Appendix A, they must continue to sign up from the “at needs” list, even if they have already signed up for a shift, and was not awarded the shift. Essentially, they must continue to sign up, until they actually work the hours they have committed to in their tier. We don’t agree with this application and feel nurses need only make themselves available for shifts from the “at needs” list. This grievance is at step 2.

Wedekind and All Affected – This grievance is at Step 3. The hospital is arguing part time and in lieu nurses do not accrue PTO Safe Sick leave, and in addition, they are indicating these nurses only accrue Safe Sick and at a rate of 1 hr for every 40 worked. We disagree and feel the contact (Article 10.1) is crystal clear. This grievance is pending advancement to arbitration. A settlement has been proposed.

The following Association Group Grievances have been advanced to Arbitration:

Nagahiro and All Affected – Overtime calculation issue when a nurse works call back. The employer is arguing they get to credit time worked in callback towards the total sum in a 40 hr. week.

Taylor and All Affected – COVID vaccine declination form being discriminatory. We found that only those nurses who sought an exemption from the COVID vaccine, were required to fill out the declination form. We believe this to be discrimination. In addition, the nurses were required to attest to certain language prior to submitting their request, and the attestation language, we felt, was not factual as indicated by Providence.

Chessar and All Affected - Overtime calculation issue when a nurse works call back. The employer is arguing they get to credit time worked in callback towards the total sum of 80 hours in a two week period.

South and All Affected – The grievance was filed due to the issue of the employer skipping the second step, in article 10.5 when it came to approving or denying PTO requests. While we worked hard for a year to reach a mutually agreeable settlement, SHMC has yet to provide a plan to remedy this grievance to our satisfaction.

Mikhailenko and All Affected – Flu vaccine declination form being discriminatory. We found that only those nurses who sought an exemption from the flu vaccine, were required to fill out the declination form. We believe this to be discrimination. In addition, the nurses were required to attest to certain language prior to submitting their request, and the attestation language, we felt, was not factual as indicated by Providence.

If you have questions about this newsletter, please contact one of your officers or WSNA Nurse Representative Jaclyn Smedley, jsmedley@wsna.org.