Coronavirus: 14,000 Stanford Health Care workers hit with furloughs, pay cuts

Healthcare workers at Stanford Health Care hospitals in the South Bay are facing 20 percent pay cuts and furloughs starting Monday, a move that will affect about 14,000 healthcare workers as the coronavirus continues to spread.

STANFORD — Slammed financially like other Bay Area hospitals by the devastating coronavirus pandemic, Stanford on Monday imposed 20 percent pay cuts and across-the-board furloughs for roughly 14,000 health care workers, including administrators and doctors.

In a statement, Stanford described the painful measures as a “shared sacrifice” crucial to weathering its health system’s fiscal viability.

Not surprisingly, the news was a blow to the medical system’s workers who have been laboring on the front lines against the deadly disease. And union officials representing those on the lower pay scale rungs pointed out the toll would be much harder on them than the higher paid executives.

Chuck Fonseca, a nursing assistant who has been with the health system for 31 years, said he and his coworkers have been working their hardest under unprecedented conditions, so to hear from Stanford Health Care about the pay cuts was a slap in the face.

“It’s unfortunate because my wife is retired and I’m also in that age group of being more affected by COVID-19, so there’s a lot of stress we’re dealing with right now,” Fonseca, 66, said. “I guess we’re all trying to be flexible, but we don’t know when it’s going to end.”

Nurses, doctors, technicians, staff and even the CEO and administrators at Stanford Hospital, Stanford-ValleyCare and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital had the option last week of accepting a pay cut or taking paid vacation time in the next 10 weeks — a move that health care administrators say could be shortened or extended.

In a letter sent to workers, health system President and CEO David Entwistle said employees also have the choice of taking a furlough that qualifies them for federal and state unemployment benefits. Workers also can do a combination of all the options, and the hospital system said it will offer help in filing for unemployment insurance.

The system made the decision to cut pay and hours after sustaining a sharp drop in revenue as a result of a 40% decrease in emergency room visits and similar declines in elective surgeries and noncoronavirus-related medical services.

“The current pandemic has affected many organizations globally, and we are no exception,” Stanford Health Care spokeswoman Lisa Kim said in a statement. “This is a difficult but necessary decision to sustain the long-term health of the organization so we can continue to provide critical services to the community.”

Kim said the cuts were a “temporary workforce adjustment” for unionized workers and an effort to avoid layoffs. More than 99% of all the system’s employees have chosen to use the paid-time-off option, she added.

“The workforce adjustment is limited to the 10-week time period,” Kim said. “Current reduced volumes make it possible to implement this program at present. We anticipate that when the current shelter-in-place order is lifted, our patient volumes will return.”

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West spokesman Steve Trossman said in an interview that Stanford’s decision came “out of the blue” and shocked employees who had been “working tirelessly throughout the pandemic to treat COVID-19 patients.”

An open letter sent to the health system administration signed by more than 500 workers demands that the university tier its approach to furloughs to reduce the burden on those earning less than $100,000 a year, accept voluntary furlough days from those who don’t want to work under current conditions and provide transparency for the reasons behind the reduction in pay and hours.

Trossman said the financial burden on all employees, including the 2,500 Stanford Health Care employees represented by his union, won’t be distributed fairly.

“If you’re making $3 million a year like the CEO, that means you have to scrape by on $2.4 million,” Trossman said of Entwistle. “If you’re making $55,000 a year, a 20 percent pay cut could have a dramatic effect on paying for your rent, groceries and taking care of your family. To most people these workers are heroes; but to Stanford Health, they are just another line on a balance sheet.”

For a full-time lab assistant, who Fonseca said after six years would be making $61,027, a loss of 12 days’ pay would cost them $2,817 and could hamper their ability to deal with emergencies like a broken down vehicle or a health emergency of their own. Full-time housekeeping assistants — who have been essential in keeping hospitals sterile — would lose $2,613 from a $56,618 salary earned after six years, or about 4.6% of their total pay.

Fonseca said he’s already overheard or been part of break-room conversations about the effect the pay cuts and furloughs are having on workers, including one woman who said she had run out of paid time off after taking two weeks earlier this month to care for her child who would have been alone at home with schools closed.

Fonseca hopes that Stanford will sit with the union and other workers to get more protections for workers, which he thinks the university’s large endowment should help pay for.

“Stanford is not poor,” Fonseca said. “My question is, why aren’t we meeting and discussing this? We should present our side, their side, both sides mutually listening. Let’s try to resolve this.”