Temple health workers win back tuition-reimbursement benefit

Tuition reimbursement was reinstated for the children of 1,500 unionized nurses and health-care professionals at the Temple University Health System by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board last week.

About 150 members, whose dependents had been using the benefit, should be reimbursed about $1 million, said Bill Cruice, chief negotiator for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

Michael Horvitz, 59, an emergency-room nurse for 20 years, said that he had used the benefit to enhance his nursing education and that now his learning-disabled son planned to use it for his education.

"We were counting on this," said Horvitz. "Tuition was not the reason I came to Temple, but it's one of the reasons I stayed.

"For Temple to have pulled it out from under me, after so many years of service, was exceedingly unfair . . . and illegal," he added.

PASNAP represents two Temple hospital units and a university unit, including one for 1,000 nurses and another unit for 500 technicians, therapists, dieticians and physician assistants, and a third unit for 60 registered nurses at the university.

On March 9, Temple University unilaterally discontinued the benefit without bargaining, and the union filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint the following day, according to the labor board's decision.

"It was outrageous," said Cruice. "Why should the secretary in the CEO's office get the benefit, when nurses who save lives every day do not?"

Rebecca Harmon, a Temple hospital spokeswoman, said: "Our decision to eliminate tuition-assistance for the children of all Health System employees was based on several factors: it is not a competitive benefit within the marketplace, it's discriminatory in that it applies to only a small number of employees and it's inconsistent with the economic realities of the region."

On Oct. 6, a hearing examiner with the state labor board found that Temple had bargained in bad faith by unilaterally changing the labor contract. Temple appealed.

Last Tuesday, the state labor board upheld the ruling of the hearing examiner, who found that the policy of tuition reimbursement was a mandatory subject of bargaining, according to the labor board's final order.

In its ruling, the state labor board did not distinguish whether the tuition reimbursement was for members or their children, only that both sides were required to negotiate the policy.

The unionized employees are continuing to work under a contract that expired Sept. 30. Negotiations for a new contract are continuing.

Harmon said that the hospital "will appeal the Labor Board's decision, and will continue to negotiate in good faith with PASNAP."