Virtua Nurses Settle Contract 
and Pension Dispute

Members of HPAE Local 5105 began their contract negotiations determined to resolve a major dispute with management concerning their pensions.

Prior to negotiations, management at Virtua had switched the Virtua RNs from their traditional defined benefit plan to a 401K plan without negotiating the switch with 5105’s leadership.

“Many nurses had already calculated their pension benefit based upon the prior plan,” stated Local 5105 President Joan Johnson. “Now, as some of them were getting close to retirement, Virtua pulled the switch. It was wrong, and we were determined to get the best possible retirement outcome for every age group of nurses.” 

The Virtua nurses were able to resolve the pension dispute in their favor while also winning significant increases in salary, and improvements in such benefits as charge and on-call pay.

The new Virtua contract re-assigns nurses with 10 years of service and age 50 back into their traditional defined benefit pension plan, while providing a 5% guaranteed contribution into the new 401K/403B pension plan for less senior nurses, while both groups getting an additional contribution by the employer between 1.5% to 4.5% depending on which plan the nurse is in.

“The lack of decent pension benefits for nurses is a major issue,” said HPAE President Ann Twomey. “For Virtua to attempt to escape its obligations to its nurses is all too typical of how nurses are treated when it comes to retirement benefits. Because the Virtua nurses were unionized and were unified throughout their contract negotiations, they were able to maintain and improve their plans.”

In addition to the settlement of the pension issue and the wage improvements, the nurses were able to win contract language mandating that staffing guidelines be developed and revised/monitored by a Staffing and Scheduling Committee comprised of 4 union nurses and 4 management representatives. And to aid in staffing, critical shift and staff retention bonuses were agreed to, while the period to submit scheduling preferences was increased to 6 weeks prior to implementation of a new schedule.