NLRB sides with nurses in Longmont United Hospital wage case

LONGMONT — The National Labor Relations Board has ordered CommonSpirit, the owner of Longmont United Hospital, to repay its unionized nurses the raises they were excluded from for the past three years.

The order puts to rest the lawsuit the NLRB filed against Centura Health, parts of which were taken over by CommonSpirit. The lawsuit stated that the hospital system intentionally excluded the nurses from four sets of raises because they were unionizing. A judge in the case found that the hospital violated the law, and the NLRB affirmed that decision in a recent order. As a result, all parties agreed to terminate the case in U.S District Court on Oct 2.

CommonSpirit issued a prepared statement in reaction to the NLRB ruling: 

“Our valued nurses received wage increases in 2023, and we have proposed additional increases that would take effect before the end of this year,” the statement read. “Our hospital intends to comply with the NLRB’s order, which concerns disputed wage and benefit changes dating back to 2021 and 2022.”

The court case arose from a vitriolic labor dispute that began in April 2021 when nurses at Longmont United filed to be included in the National Nurses United/AFL-CIO. After challenges to the voting, nurses won the unionization effort on a 94-93 vote.

During the process, Centura increased wages or benefits for nurses but specifically excluded Longmont United nurses, claiming that they needed to maintain the status quo until all issues with the unionization and contract negotiation were resolved.

The judge at that time did not order retroactive pay increases to align with what other nurses were being paid in the system.

A U.S District Court judge ruled in 2023, and the NLRB agreed in a recent ruling, that the hospital system broke the law when it excluded its unionizing nurses from those pay raises, and when officials announced that exclusion to their entire employee base. The hospital system appealed, but the NLRB took up the case, rejecting the hospital officials’ assertion that they were “statutorily obligated” to exclude the nurses from pay raises while they were in the middle of organizing.

“We reject that argument,” the NLRB wrote. “It is well-established that neither an employer’s good-faith belief that a pending representation election precludes the grant of wage or benefit improvements, nor the fear of being charged with unfair labor practices, justifies the withholding of improvements that normally would have been extended to the affected employees.”

The NLRB decided the hospital’s widely disseminated announcements to its staff that everyone would receive raises except the organizing nurses had the effect of warning employees against unionizing, which is their right under the National Labor Relations Act.

In a decision published Sept. 18, the NLRB ordered the hospital system to repay the nurses, regardless of whether they continued to work at LUH, the prescribed raises afforded to other employees in those four instances.

“Our decisions make clear that an employer cannot both refuse to bargain with a union representing a group of employees and also rely on the fact that they are represented as the basis for withholding benefits that would otherwise be provided to them,” the NLRB wrote in its order.

CommonSpirit/Centura is now required to notify all affected nurses who were denied the raises that they will:

• “Implement for unit employees the increased or new wages, bonuses, and/or benefits announced in the September 27, 2021, November 5, 2021, March 2, 2022, and October 11, 2022 memoranda, as set forth in the remedy section of the judge’s decision as amended in this decision.
• “Make current and former unit employees whole, with interest, for any loss of earnings and other benefits and any direct or foreseeable pecuniary harms suffered as a result of their exclusion from the increased or new wages, bonuses, and/or benefits announced in the September 27, 2021, November 5, 2021, March 2, 2022, and October 11, 2022 memoranda as further set forth in the remedy section of the judge’s decision.
• “Compensate affected employees for the adverse tax consequences, if any, of receiving lump-sum backpay awards, and file with the Regional Director for Region 27, within 21 days of the date the amount of backpay is fixed, either by agreement or Board order, a report allocating the back pay awards to the appropriate calendar years for each employee.”

BizWest reached out to the National Nurses United, with no response by deadline.

The case is Matthew S. Lomax, regional director of Region 27 of the NLRB vs. Longmont United Hospital and Centura Health, case number 2023cv02297 filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

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