The nearly 1,700 state government registered professional nurses will get pay raises for the final six months of a two-year contract, retroactive to Jan. 1.
"I’m so happy for all the nurses that they’re going to get some raise," said Sue Kaulukukui, director of the Hawaii state government nurses. "This should really help us retain our nurses with 8 percent."
A three-member arbitration panel awarded the retroactive 4 percent raise and a second 4 percent increase from April 1 for Unit 9 of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state’s largest public-sector labor union.
The nurses who haven’t reached the top of the pay scale will be allowed to move up a pay step. Such movement on the scale had been frozen in the previous contract.
In April 2011, Unit 9 was the only one of seven HGEA bargaining units to reject a two-year contract, from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013.
The remainder of the 28,124-member union ratified the agreement, which meant a 5 percent pay cut, an increase in health care premium payments and an increase in time off. It also meant an end to twice-a-month Furlough Fridays.
The furloughs, instituted during the 2009-11 contract, were equivalent to 10 percent pay cuts, said HGEA spokeswoman Jodi Endo Chai.
When the 2009-11 nurses’ contract expired, their salaries reverted back to 2007-2009 salary rates, which kept the pay the same without Furlough Fridays.
Arbitration hearings took place in November with neutral arbitrator Joe Henderson and representatives from the union and the employer.
Nurses will also receive a 50-cent increase to $1 per hour in pay differential, generally for those working with mental health patients, such as at the Hawaii State Hospital, corrections facilities and the mental health wing at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kaulukukui said.
Unit 9 nurses include those who work at state hospitals, community facilities and acute care hospitals under the Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a written statement Tuesday, "I am disappointed in the arbitration award as it has always been this administration’s goal to treat all public employees fairly, which meant everyone sharing certain sacrifices so they could all reap the benefits together."
In 2011, Abercrombie said the contract would save the state $65 million in fiscal year 2012 and $59 million in fiscal year 2013.
HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira said in a written statement Tuesday: "During the 2011-13 contract negotiations period, the employer had every opportunity to negotiate a fair contract, but they chose not to.
"This arbitration decision … recognizes that wages for registered nurses in the public hospital system are woefully lagging — 20 percent less than the private sector. The neutral arbitrator clearly determined the state couldn’t justify the glaring pay disparity."
Kaulukukui said the problem was especially great at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where the state would train new nurses for one to two years and "everybody was hiring them away."
