Jesus Figueroa Cacho, a certified nursing assistant
of the Sacramento, California area, has worked in the nursing home
industry for about 25 years.
She consistently
works 16 hour long shifts, 60 to 80 hours per week, often working
through breaks and not getting paid overtime because she works night
shifts and overtime accrual resets at 1am every day, in the middle of
her shifts. Figueroa Cacho said her facility is severely understaffed,
often with just two nurses to care for about 50 patients.
“I
come home exhausted, I have to drive 40 miles to come to work. This is
by choice because I love my residents, I love my work, but I have two
hours just to get home, and have very little time to sleep before I have
to get right back to work,” said Figueroa Cacho.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, her employer had
staffing help from the national guard and staffing agencies, but that
contributed to many workers quitting as they were paid much more than
permanent staff, who receive just above minimum wage.
“We
would like to address poverty level wages. If I don’t work 16-hour
shifts, I can’t pay my rent,” said Figueroa Cacho. “I have a son in
college. My son was denied last semester because I didn’t have enough
funds to pay for his school. This is devastating. We need to be paid for
our work.”
Now the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Local 2015, which represents 400,000 nursing
home and home care workers in California, the largest long-term care
union in the US, is advocating for a proposal to create a statewide
Quality Standards Board to oversee the state’s nursing home industry in
the wake of the pandemic that has decimated staffing in the industry.
The board would
include 16 seats, with 10 seats from state agencies, two workers, two
seats representing advocates and families, and two representing
employers. The board will have authority to set minimum standards for
wages, benefits and working conditions for the nursing home industry in
California.
It follows similar pushes to establish industry oversight boards with worker representation in the fast-food industry in California and the nail salon industry in New York.
According
to April Verrett, president of SEIU Local 2015, the board, which was
proposed by the union with the California state senator Henry Stern and
assembly member Miguel Santiago, is being advocated for inclusion in the
next California state budget, which is currently undergoing hearings in the state legislature before the next fiscal year begins on 1 July.
“Our members are wanting to make sure that we
address a longstanding crisis in our state’s nursing homes as it relates
to making sure the quality of care is what residents in the facilities
deserve, that families can count on, and that we once and for all get to
the root cause of why people leave this industry,” said Verrett.
Verrett
added: “They want to make sure that as we approach how we fix this
crisis, workers have a seat at the table so they’re able to be a part of
creating real solutions so we have a long-term care system that
provides the highest-quality care for residents, but also ensures that
the workforce receives the dignity, respect and the compensation they
deserve.”
A poll conducted
by the union of workers in the nursing home industry found half of
nursing home workers are likely to leave their job within the next year,
citing severe staffing shortages and low pay.
In 2020, there was a turnover rate of over 50% in California’s nursing home industry. The skilled nursing industry in the US has lost 241,000 jobs since the pandemic began, 15.2% of the industry’s total workforce,
During
the pandemic, nursing homes were among the hardest hit by infections
and deaths for residents and workers, accounting for 31% of all Covid deaths in the US as of 30 June 2021.
 |
| SEIU Local 2015 holds vigil for nursing home workers who died after contracting Covid, in Sacramento, on 28 March. Photograph: Robert Durell |
According to SEIU Local 2015,
more than 82,000 nursing home workers in California contracted Covid-19 during the pandemic, and 247 workers died.
“The
Quality Standards Board is one of the best things for a long time
coming because it gives ordinary workers an opportunity to sit on such a
board who has real life experience in what happens in these fields,”
said Robert Oriona, a nursing home worker in the Los Angeles,
California, area.
Oriona noted his nephew makes
more than he does working in fast food, and his employer has offered
measly wage increase proposals of 1.5% that will be canceled out when
the minimum wage in Los Angeles increases in July 2022 to about $16 an hour.
He also frequently experiences verbal and physical abuse from residents
who don’t have enough staff to properly care for them, faulty equipment
and poor benefits.
“We’re asking for help.
Patient minimums, better wages, better benefits, and we need everyone
out there to know what goes on in these facilities,” added Oriona.
Charisma
Elok, a rehab assistant for seven years at a nursing home in the Los
Angeles area, cited that staff at her facility had dwindled during the
pandemic, amid Covid outbreaks, low pay and short staffing
She
had to fight to be paid after contracting Covid on the job early on in
the pandemic, has worked with inadequate personal protective equipment,
and her facility often can’t handle the number or type of patients they
admit due to understaffing and not having the properly trained staff to
care for patients with high needs, such as residents suffering from
dementia or Alzheimer’s.
“These nursing homes,
they look at patients as dollar signs on their head, because why are you
accepting a patient that you cannot provide adequate quality of care
for?” said Elok.
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