A Labor Day demonstration brought a renewed focus on the strains of workers in the healthcare industry and how employers are addressing what some are calling a “staffing shortage” as unions are bargaining for new contracts.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing more than 85,000 healthcare workers in seven states and the District of Columbia, is negotiating its first contract renewal since 2019.
According to an article published in the Los Angeles Times, workers say the pandemic decimated staffing to a degree that endangers patient and staff safety. They are calling for an increase in hiring, and a $25 per hour minimum wage for front-line health workers.
Supporters submitted ballot initiatives to local governments throughout Los Angeles County, where some cities adopted them outright, and others left the issue in the hands of voters.
In the City of Inglewood, voters narrowly approved giving $25 per hour increases to certain employees employed at or by a privately-owned covered healthcare facility within city limits.
Related: Union Alleges Inglewood Hospital Reacted to Minimum Pay Law With Layoffs
Shortly after the measure was passed, a union sued Prime Healthcare Centinela Hospital Medical Center, alleging the Inglewood hospital laid off workers, including one with more than 50 years of seniority, rather than pay them $25 an hour as required by a new city law.
Staffing shortages within the industry directly impact nursing staff when there is a staffing shortage in certain areas, directly impacting their work and more importantly, patient care.
Over recent years, venture capitalists have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into healthcare staffing apps, enabling healthcare facilities and professionals to upload their information and documents.
Similar to app-based ridesharing and dating platforms like Lyft, Uber, Tinder, and Hinge, healthcare workers upload their certifications, educational information, and areas of expertise, while healthcare facilities upload open shifts to the app. The healthcare workers then scroll and swipe until they find a shift and facility combination that matches them.
These healthcare apps are used nationwide at hospitals, clinics, senior centers, and other healthcare facilities.
Healthcare staffing apps typically offer two types of workers: 1099, classified as independent contractors, and W-2 employees, whom the healthcare staffing app companies officially employ.
Former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher authored Assembly Bill 5, which strictly defined on who is an independent contractor and who is a company employee. Concerns are emerging regarding the misclassification of workers in the healthcare industry despite California’s efforts to put laws in place to prevent such issues.
Fletcher was asked how AB 5 will impact families in the healthcare industry.
“I think AB 5 will be a backstop to the degradation of jobs in the healthcare industry,” said Fletcher. “This stability ensures fewer healthcare workers will leave the industry and ensures healthcare workers will have the right to unionize.”
“Nursing requires a lot of teamwork, knowledge of the workplace, empathy, and ability to balance patient’s needs,” said Zenei Cortez, a registered nurse and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses United. “We need nurses who are scheduled consistently so that we would know the progress of the patient.”
Misclassifying workers as independent contractors is a ticking time bomb, with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office and the U.S. Department of Labor already filing cases. For instance, CareRev, a healthcare app-based staffing company, operating in California was sued for misclassifying workers who registered on the app as contractors.
In September 2022, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office cited a home healthcare placement agency nearly $2 million for misclassifying 66 workers. In March 2023, a therapy provider was cited $9 million for misclassifying 1,280 workers.
“When workers are misclassified as independent contractors, there is a damaging domino effect that impacts all levels of our economy. In this case, caretakers were systematically denied minimum wage, overtime, and other legally required working conditions,” stated California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower
California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently joined a national coalition pushing for stronger protections against worker misclassifications. His office stated, “The misclassification of employees as independent contractors is detrimental to workers, states, and law-abiding employers. First, misclassified workers are typically not entitled to basic protections such as minimum wage, overtime, timely payment of wages, timekeeping records, pay stubs, paid leave, and reimbursement for expenditures that primarily benefit the employer, e.g., uniforms or travel expenses.”
“When workers are misclassified as independent contractors, there is a damaging domino effect that impacts all levels of our economy. In this case, caretakers were systematically denied minimum wage, overtime, and other legally required working conditions,” stated California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower
California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently joined a national coalition pushing for stronger protections against worker misclassifications. His office stated, “The misclassification of employees as independent contractors is detrimental to workers, states, and law-abiding employers. First, misclassified workers are typically not entitled to basic protections such as minimum wage, overtime, timely payment of wages, timekeeping records, pay stubs, paid leave, and reimbursement for expenditures that primarily benefit the employer, e.g., uniforms or travel expenses.”
After Prop. 22 passed in 2019, California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo noted, “How disappointing to see Postmates and Uber again attempting to shirk their responsibilities as employers by filing a lawsuit requesting a preliminary injunction against AB 5, which I co-authored with Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.”
While the gig economy is expanding, businesses that ignore state laws will open themselves up to regulatory and legal problems.
Last year, Californians for Equitable Healthcare Access introduced ballot language to carve out nurses or other healthcare workers from further protections from AB 5 and define healthcare workers, securing work through digital platforms as independent contractors if the work arrangement meets certain parameters.
Asm. Tina McKinnor agrees that employee protections are crucial to the workforce.
“With rare exception, every worker should be afforded the security of a job stability, access to healthcare, sick leave, parental leave, and workers compensation protection. These protections include employees in the healthcare industry,” said McKinnor.
The initiative was withdrawn weeks later, but as we know, in California, nothing ever truly disappears.