Nurses awarded post-retirement health benefits

Long Island Business News, Aug 29, 2003 by Claude Solnik

Amid an acute nursing shortage, Southside Hospital has become the latest institution to approve a contract that gives nurses health care benefits after they retire.

The union said the new provision would pay nurses from age 60 to 65 a $2,500 stipend toward health insurance upon retirement.

The benefit is designed to help nurses pay for health insurance until they are eligible for Medicare at age 65.

The contract was ratified this month by the New York State Nurses Association.

It's a bridge, said Mark Genovese, a spokesman for the union affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The physical demands on a registered nurse are great. It really takes a physical toll.

St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown and St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson have enacted similar provisions.

The agreement comes as hospitals are struggling to attract and retain nurses during a nationwide shortage. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the average age of nurses is rising.

Southside's roughly 700 nurses had been working without a contract since March 1.

It's an increasing concern as health care insurance goes up, said Martha Gershun, director of communications for the union. We try to respond to the needs of the experienced nurses.

Neither the union nor the hospital would say how many nurses would be affected.

A spokesman for 444-bed Southside, which is sponsored by the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, said the hospital agreed to the provision after other local hospitals had taken the step.

Genovese said in recent years New York Presbyterian Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital both adopted similar health care plans for retired nurses.

The majority of our contracts now are coming in with retirement health provisions, he said.

The nurses at Southside reached their contract agreement just hours before picketing was scheduled to begin to protest the lack of a contract.