SCRIPT

Call-In Script:

Give your name and city/town your from……I am a health care worker and member of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), calling to ask LEGISLATORS NAME  to consider the legislative changes to public employee pensions and benefits, that will ensure that part-time nursing and health professional staff working in the public sector remain eligible for health benefits and retirement security.

I respectfully request LEGISLATORS NAME consider re-defining part-time or exempting public health care institutions.  Thank you for your attention and consideration to this matter.

Proposed changes to the Public Employee Pension and Benefits would diminish benefits that members negotiated through collective bargaining and fought to obtain.  While legislators take action to deal with abuse of the pension system, the “solutions” crafted threaten to harm hard-working members instead.

As proposed, the legislation renders anyone working less than 35 hours as part-time, and ineligible for health benefits or participation in the state pension plan.  As a result, the proposed legislation will hinder the recruitment and retention of nursing and professional staff and nursing faculty at our public institutions, including UMDNJ, University Hospital in Newark, Runnells Specialized Hospital and other state and county facilities. 

As NJ seeks to improve access to health care and reduce the numbers of uninsured, why would we seek to cut off access for those working in the healthcare system? Nurses, mental health clinicians, medical researchers and staff working in Newark and urban areas of New Jersey, often caring for the uninsured, should not themselves become part of the uninsured.

We ask that you reconsider this legislation, and ensure that part-time nursing and health professional staff working in the public sector remain eligible for health benefits and retirement security

Senate Labor Committee Members