Public Employee Press

Union gets bucks for new HHC title

Three Behavioral Health Associates at Coney Island Hospital received a combined $4,000 in pay increases after the union pressed the Health and Hospitals Corp. to actually pay the higher wages it had negotiated for the title.

DC 37 and Local 420 won the right to represent the new BHA title - a step above Psych Tech - in 2011 and negotiated a $1,000-per-year salary boost. In 2012, HHC transferred Candida Martin from per diem work at Lincoln Hospital to Coney Island Hospital as a permanent BHA. When her paycheck didn't reflect the increase, she spoke with DC 37 Hospitals Division Grievance Rep Monique Jaysura.

"I value my job and love what I do," Martin said. "I have good recommendations from the doctors I work with and I hoped to be compensated fairly."

Jaysura checked and found that some other Coney Island BHAs had not received the negotiated pay hike. She met with hospital management about the issue and HHC agreed to correct its error. In June the workers got the increase retroactive to their original dates of hire under the new contract.

The BHA position was created after a lawsuit forced HHC to pay $2 million to the family of a woman who died in 2008 on the floor of the psychiatric ward at Kings County Hospital while waiting for emergency care. HHC later added BHAs to all city hospitals.

"We monitor patients in psych wards, emergency rooms and detox clinics," Martin said. "We keep them safe and calm and intervene to limit emergency calls. We apply and remove restraints when patients are transported, and we recommend when they may need to be medicated, though we cannot dispense meds."

"I am grateful to the union," she said. "The extra money - $40 more than I was getting - helps tremendously. I can do a bit more for my three children."

"Coney Island started the ball rolling in correcting the pay discrepancy for everyone in that title," Jaysura said, as the union checked BHA pay rates throughout HHC to make sure they are getting the higher salary.