Hospital employees to get raise next week

About 2,250 workers at two Spokane hospitals will see a 4.75 percent increase in their Dec. 23 paychecks.

The increase is Empire Health Services’ final step in restoring a 9 percent pay cut made in 2003 before a wave of unionization swept through the hospitals.

Employees had received two other incremental pay increases previously.

Empire’s new CEO, Jeff Nelson, said the decision will cost $3.8 million over a year, but “we had no choice but to invest in our employees.”

He declined to say how much the hospital system lost in the third quarter, but said losses continued.

Empire’s year began with a $7.5 million loss in the first six months.

Nelson said the pay restoration, which was announced to employees Friday, will be subsidized by “streamlining the organization, higher productivity and revenue generation.”

Heather Harvego, an emergency room nurse at Valley Hospital, lost $400 a month when wages were rolled back in March 2003. To deal with the pay cuts, some of her co-workers reduced their household expenses and others sought work elsewhere, she said.

She said her colleagues are cautiously optimistic about the pay restoration, one of the first tangible actions from Nelson. She noted there have been no cost-of-living increases, so employees are back at their 2003 wage levels.

The pay restoration ends a tumultuous year for the nonprofit Empire.

In July, Empire reduced staff by the equivalent of 150 full-time positions. The hospital system also hired accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to evaluate operations and implement cost controls.

On Sept. 30, Garman Lutz resigned as chief executive officer. In October, 450 more workers joined Service Employees International Union District 1199NW.

The union now represents most of Empire’s workers and another 300 employees of Aramark who work at Deaconess and Valley hospitals providing housekeeping and dietary services.

Harvego, the emergency room nurse, is on a bargaining team negotiating the Valley nurses’ first contract with Empire. She called on Empire to complete the contract negotiations with worker groups.

“It’s important that we complete the bargaining process and it can be done very easily,” she said. “We’re not being difficult.”

Nelson said Empire would continue “to work in a partnership way to make that happen.” He said Empire’s goal is to have the top hospitals in the nation for employee and patient safety and satisfaction.