Nurses who staff Temple’s outpatient clinics escalate negotiations with lawsuit as their contract expired

A lawsuit alleging unpaid overtime filed last week by the nurses who staff the outpatient clinics of Temple University Hospital suggests tensions are escalating as their union and the health system’s management negotiate a new contract.

In a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court, two nurses say Temple broke employment law by not paying them overtime. The civil case alleges that when nurses documented overtime, they were criticized and even disciplined by managers for not completing the tasks during shift hours.

The litigation comes as Temple nurses’ previous 3-year contract expired on Sept. 30. The two sides are far from agreeing on key points, including nurses’ demands for increased staffing, members of the union bargaining team said.

The outpatient clinics’ roughly 80 nurses are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, the union that separately represents more than 2,000 nurses and other health-care workers who staff Temple hospital.

A spokesperson for the hospital said Temple does not comment on ongoing litigation. In addition, the hospital declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations.

» READ MORE: Nurses, techs decry Temple Hospital decision to move the employee health clinic from its main campus.

Nurses told The Inquirer that since the onset of the pandemic, their offices have steadily lost nurses and support staff. While many of those positions remained vacant, the number of patients has increased. Administrative tasks — such as typing notes into patient charts and getting prior authorization for prescriptions from insurance companies — have become impossible to complete during their shift hours, leaving many to work off the clock.

Laura Fish, an obstetrics nurse, can’t remember the last time she took a lunch break. She isn’t paid for the 30-minute period but she feels that she has to work, and is frustrated that the hospital’s management doesn’t seem to understand why.

“Of course, I didn’t take my lunch break, literally when would I have done that?” she said of her thinking in a recent bargaining session. “You’re the one who assigned me three jobs.”

Other nurses said they regularly work after they clocked out, or on weekend and vacation. They feel management discourages them from reporting those overtime hours.

One of the nurses who sued, Jennifer Malloy, is a nurse-practitioner at an HIV clinic. Many of her patients also suffer from addiction and have other health concerns, and managing their care takes time. When she complained to management that she has to work around the clock, she felt dismissed and ended up with a larger case load.

“That was a big tipping point,” Malloy said.

Staffing levels has been a point of contention in contract negotiations and a motivation for nurses to unionize in hospitals across the city, including those affiliated with Temple. The outpatient nurses’ plight at Temple is the latest example.

Roughly 30% of direct-care nursing positions in Pennsylvania hospitals are vacant, according to a 2022 survey by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. Unions advocating for nurses and researchers who study the health-care workforce cite understaffing as a main cause of burnout that’s leading some to leave bedside jobs.

Kim Brawner, a nurse-practitioner in the endocrine unit who treats patients with diabetes, has been at Temple for less than a year. She jokes that she’s “the baby” among more veteran nurses, but Brawner already feels tired and overworked. She commonly finds herself alone at the clinic after 5 p.m., because medical assistants and front desk staff are instructed to leave when their shift hours are over.

“I can’t just leave my patients sitting there,” she said.

Fish, the obstetrics nurse, welcomed the lawsuit as a way to make sure a future contract is enforced. She also hopes it makes management pay more attention to the nurses’ concerns

“I feel optimistic about it,” Fish said. “It’s the right thing to do.”