COUNTYWIDE : Negotiation Ordered Over Hospital Pay

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered Ventura County Medical Center officials and nurses back to the negotiating table to try to settle a longstanding pay dispute.

Frustrated hospital officials had asked the supervisors to vote on a plan that would eliminate overtime pay for nurses who work 12-hour shifts, a move that could mean a 4% pay cut for them.

But after several nurses spoke out against the hospital’s proposal, supervisors decided to put the issue off for discussion until next week, after the two sides get another chance to talk. They have already met several times without success.

Nurses get time-and-a-half pay after eight hours a day.

Under the hospital’s proposal, the nurses would lose their overtime but would receive an increase in their hourly wage from an average of $16.86 to $18.73.

However, nurses say they now average $19.67 an hour when overtime is figured in.

The nurses say they are considering striking or calling in sick en masse if the county allows the hospital to move ahead with plans to eliminate overtime pay.

Also on Tuesday, the supervisors put off until next week the adoption of a plan that would solve a parking shortage in El Rio.

Under a county proposal, cars would park at a 90-degree angle to the curb on a one-block segment of North South Bank Road off Lambert Street that ends in a cul-de-sac.

Parking has been in short supply on the street because of the operations of Food Share, a nonprofit agency that packages surplus food for distribution to the needy.