In a draconian maneuver relating to nurse paid sick time, M Health Fairview, one of the largest hospital systems in Minnesota, announced that sick employees, “…will be allowed to borrow up to 80 hours of PTO (Paid Time Off) from future accruals”. The email, sent out on Saturday, March 14, creates a policy for nurses exceeding their sick so that they can opt to go into a sick pay debt. Future sick pay, earned by nurses and dependent on their hour of work would be taken back from them.

Front- line health care workers are paid a fraction of the seven figure salaries of hospital CEOs and other ancillary upper management. (There has been no announcements of payouts to management at this time.) Nurses share almost no significant decision making power in health care and at same time are shouldering the enormous burden of care giving during the pandemic COVID 19. All are risking infection, and some, due to age and medical conditions are risking death.

As the pandemic unfolds, RNs have been comprehensively prohibited from the critical decision -making discussions related to staffing, personal protective equipment, and policy. Systemically, the demands and desperate requirements of nurses have been ignored as the COVID 19 virus spreads across the continent. They are being directed to work under worsening and more dangerous condition with inadequate personal protective equipment.

We Do The Work spoke with the “Communications team” member Maria, who would not give her last name, on the night of Saturday, March 14. Maria stated that she, “…is not permitted to divulge” M Health Fairview decisions and stated, “I want to make sure we are off the record”. WDTW neither offered nor agreed to this request. Following is the email.