Kaiser Permanente to Pay Owed Wages to More Than 1,000 Nurses, Says Union
Kaiser Permanente must pay more than 1,000 registered nurses owed wages that could total tens of millions of dollars after a payroll mistake, according to the union that represents the nurses.
The California Nurses Association celebrated Monday an arbitrator’s resolution of the yearslong dispute as a “historic victory against wage theft.”
“They changed their payroll system, messed it up and let the mistake steal millions of dollars from nurses,” CNA President Michelle Gutierrez Vo, a family medicine nurse at Kaiser Fremont Medical Center, said in a statement.
“When we called them on it, their fancy lawyers fought us tooth and nail for every single dollar,” she said.
“Nurses wouldn’t take no for an answer, and we won back millions of dollars in stolen wages.”
The union, which represents about 25,000 nurses at 22 Kaiser facilities, said members first alerted the company to the underpayment problem, dating back to at least 2021, after Kaiser changed its payroll system. It’s unclear how much money each nurse is set to receive.
In a statement, Kaiser said it disagrees with the union’s characterization but will honor its obligations under the arbitrator’s decision, reached in a process outlined in their labor contract.
California’s largest private employer, with a workforce of 183,000 in the state, declined to disclose more information about the payroll issue that shorted its employees.
“Our nurses are among the most skilled and dedicated in the country, and we are committed to ensuring every one of them is paid accurately and in full accordance with their contract,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We will reach out directly to every affected nurse promptly.”
Kaiser said its nurses are among the best-compensated in the industry.
A Staff Nurse II in Northern California often earns more than $100 per hour before overtime and premium pay, roughly 7% above market for comparable roles at other health systems, according to the company, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health plans and providers.
The news that Kaiser nurses are set to collectively recover millions of dollars in compensation comes as the employer negotiates a new contract with the California Nurses Association.
Top union demands focus on staffing levels, wages and more say over the use of artificial intelligence in patient care.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law a union-sponsored bill that limits the use of AI in clinical decisions. AB 1979 by Oakland Assemblymember Mia Bonta requires a health facility or physicians’ office to take reasonable steps to ensure that nurses, doctors and other licensed healthcare professionals decide a patient’s care.