Nurses File Suit Against Ascension Health, Alleging Incorrect Pay

A group of nurses in Illinois have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Ascension Health, alleging that complex compensation measures spurred by the organization’s cost cutting led to incorrect payments.

In their complaint, the four nurses, who are current and former employees of Ascension Saint Joseph (ASJ) in Joliet, Illinois, said that the organization failed to provide correct compensation, including wages, paid time off, disability benefits, and wage payouts, as part of a fully agreed-to settlement of a contract grievance, noting that the alleged discrepancies began even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As has been reported in the New York Times, Defendant Ascension spent years leading up to the pandemic trying to shrink labor costs as much as possible, in turn putting more money into executive compensation, which has led to dramatic short-staffing issues at defendant’s hospitals nationwide, including at ASJ,” the complaint stated. “Defendant Ascension has had to resort to more complex forms of compensation in order to induce extra work at lower levels of staffing. But defendant has unlawfully cut corners even here by failure to fully provide their employees the correct compensation.”

As reported by the Times, the nurses alleged that Ascension engaged in improper cost-cutting measures for a nonprofit organization in order to boost revenues and executive compensation, despite having $18 billion in cash reserves. That has included getting more work out of fewer employees, the complaint noted, with ASJ nurses having to work “many more shifts than is standard, with various complex compensation structures put into place to incentivize the remaining nurses to work longer hours to make up for the staff shortages.”

Over the course of several years, amid the growing complexity in compensation, ASJ has “failed them time and time again,” despite their dedication, the nurses claimed. Payroll and human resources departments have continued to make repeated and systemic errors, and have failed to address them when they occur, according to the complaint.

“For plaintiffs and other class members, defendant Ascension does not contest their wage and hour calculations, but then takes no further action to pay the extra amounts due,” the complaint stated. “As a result, defendant Ascension continues to undercompensate plaintiffs and other class members, for months and in some cases years. This has led to dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ASJ employees to be undercompensated.”

In a statement provided to MedPage Today in an email, Julia Bartmes, JD, executive director of the Illinois Nurses Association, said, “Since Ascension Health bought St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet in 2018, our members and their patients have faced a multitude of injustices in the name of Ascension’s ‘labor-cost saving.’ Our nurses fight every day to provide a high standard of patient care despite intentional understaffing by the employer and it is abhorrent that Ascension consistently adds insult to injury by failing to even properly compensate nurses for their work. Our members are saying enough is enough and we look forward to contract negotiations in the coming months.”

The nurses, on behalf of themselves and other proposed class members, are seeking relief including all unpaid wages and compensation, and damages in the amount of 5% of all unpaid compensation for each month following the date of payments during which compensation has been unpaid, according to the complaint. Among other relief, they are also requesting that Ascension provide a full accounting of undercompensation and other compensation errors, as well as a plan to accurately compensate its employees on a timely basis going forward.

A spokesperson for Ascension told MedPage Today, “While Ascension does not generally comment on active litigation, we pride ourselves on paying every associate a fair wage. We recently became aware of the litigation referenced and are looking into the issues raised.”