Friday, September 11, 2009

Housing perks for 200 CHC hospital employees remain


Read entire article from the Saipan Tribune

"Saipan Tribune learned that hospital employees with dependents who are hired from off-island get an $800 monthly housing allowance; single employees get $500.
A number of CHC employees whose contracts were renewed in June lost this benefit after the government suspended paying for housing allowances due to declining revenues. Since then, many hospital personnel have resigned or are considering resigning from their posts.To stem any further losses in personnel, Untalan said they will be reinstating the benefit but, instead of classifying it as a “housing allowance” on the payroll, the amount will be added to the existing salary of each personnel."

I question the information in this article. No nurses even thought about quiting CHC. If anyone actually quit, why hasn't there been a single job posting (with the exception of a Board of Nursing clerk at 12,000 per year). I think this was all planned out. Local nurses protested that non-residents were getting paid more than they were since they didn't get the housing allowance. The legislature decided to cut the non-resident's housing allowance and then made everyone (including the local nurses), get 10,000 raises. Now the local residents are happy, just in time for the November election.

***** UPDATE***** Unfortunately, this article is not what seem to be going on at CHC. No nurses given raises, and they even cut the night shift differential. Raises are only planned for positions deemed to be in shortage such as a renal social worker, and nursing director. There is talk about the nurses meeting with a lawyer.

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