NYC Public Hospital Victory Yields Big Gains for 2,000 Residents
CIR’s HHC bargaining committee, made up of representatives from nine NYC public hospitals, secured a strong new contract agreement in March. |
CIR members at nine Health & Hospital Corporation (HHC) public hospitals in New York City reached an agreement with city negotiators after five months of negotiations on March 16, 2007. The agreement covers approximately 2,000 resident physicians at Bellevue, Jacobi, Coney Island, Gouveneur, Harlem, Kings County, Lincoln, Metropolitan, and Woodhull hospitals in New York City.
The contract scored CIR residents a large retroactive pay increase stretching back to October 2005, when the previous contract expired. It also included an additional salary increase which took effect in May, for overall salary gains of more than 10%.
The CIR bargaining committee successfully pushed to secure a new provision providing a stipend for incoming interns attending HHC’s two-week orientation. Previously, orientation was uncompensated.
“I remember personally how hard it was during orientation, having to pay to stay somewhere in the city and come into the hospital, but not yet be on payroll,” said Dr. Bilal Naseer, a PGY 3 in Internal Medicine at Harlem Hospital and a member of the bargaining committee. “At CIR, we always try to look at the broader picture and not be selfish. Anything we can do for incoming housestaff is important to us.”
He added that the stipend will strengthen the hospitals’ ability to attract talented prospects to their residencies, because orientation compensation “has become a standard in most good hospitals.”
The new contract was overwhelmingly approved by CIR members in early April at the nine HHC hospitals covered in the agreement. “All my colleagues are extremely excited and enthusiastic about the contract,” said Dr. Naseer.