SEPTEMBER 2018
A NEWSLETTER FOR NYSNA RNs AT NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS The settlement is a victory for all nurses and a testament to the hard, physically demanding work that nurses do every day for those in need of care in the public hospitals. It is an acknowledgement of the injustice done to our sister and brother nurses who were denied recognition of the difficult nature of our work, all based on the discriminatory perception that nurses are mostly women and women’s work isn’t physically strenuous.” - Anne Bové, RN, NYSNA Board of Directors and former President of NYCH+H/Mayorals Executive Committee
NYC H+H Nurses Get LongOverdue Recognition Nursing is a rewarding profession—but it is also physically taxing. Between the hours on our feet, the strain of lifting and transporting patients and equipment, the exposure to communicable diseases, and environmental hazards and workplace violence, nursing is one of the most physically strenuous professions there is. Now the City of New York is recognizing what nurses have known all along—all thanks to the perseverance of NYSNA nurses! From 1968 to 2012, the City recognized several professions as “physically taxing,” allowing workers in certain city pension plans, including bricklayers, mechanics, EMTs and others—notably in male-dominated professions—to contribute more money to their pensions and retire as early as age 50 with a full pension. Nurses were excluded from this list of professions—until now. Starting in 2004, Anne Bové, RN and NYSNA Board Member, spearheaded the effort to recognize nursing as a physically taxing profession. Along with a group of H+H nurses, she appealed directly to the City, yet was denied by the Bloomberg administration. Anne then brought the issue to the NYSNA Delegate As-
sembly Committee for Legislation to lobby the City Council and the State Legislature. When those efforts stalled, NYSNA nurses collected more than 1,000 individual gender discrimination complaints that were filed simultaneously with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC agreed with NYSNA nurses that the City’s decision to exclude nurses—a female-dominated profession—from the list of physically taxing professions violated workplace discrimination rules, and it referred the matter to the Department of Justice. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn, conducted it own investigation, sided with the nurses again, and pursued a settlement with the City. Now, more than 1,600 NYSNA nurses who could have qualified for physically taxing pension rights—but were denied by the City—will receive monetary damages from a $20.8 million settlement! Soon, affected nurses will receive notices about the case and their proposed settlement payments. Thanks to NYC H+H nurses for once again proving that anything is possible through our unity, persistence, and courage of our convictions! Do You Qualify to Receive Settlement Money? Find out more here: http://bit.ly/phystax