New Contract For MSNA/ NNU Nurses At CRH - Dec. 28, 2012
Nurses represented by the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses United have won a two-year contract that includes wage increase, provisions for safe staffing and language that prohibits the employer from forcing employees to work beyond their shift or regular schedule.
Highlights of the contract include; safe staffing provisions including increased core staffing in the Emergency Department, no more five Med/Surg patients to one nurse, and no more than two specialty care patients will be assigned to one nurse.
Nurses will receive a 4-percent across the board increase over the two-year contact in addition to step increases that range from 4.5-percent to 2-percent. An additional step was won as well as increases in the night differential and for the clinical ladder.
A MSNA/NNU press release says another highlight of the contract includes no mandatory overtime. The hospital can no longer require nurses to work past their shifts or force them to work shifts involuntarily for which they were not scheduled for and improved control for nurses over their schedules and use of earned time.
The new contract was overwhelming ratified.
