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Boston public health workers urge council to fix pay scale after five-year contract lapse
Summary
Nurses, nurse practitioners and community health workers from the Boston Public Health Commission pressed the City Council’s Ways and Means Committee to approve higher wages and a new contract after the union has been without a ratified agreement since February 2020, citing staffing shortages and program disruptions.
Dozens of Boston Public Health Commission employees testified at a Ways and Means public hearing on May 28, urging the City Council to increase wages and fund a contract the union says has been stalled since February 2020.
The staff said low pay has caused high turnover and long hiring delays that threaten core services including the Healthy Baby/Healthy Child home visits, school-based health centers and communicable-disease programs.
“We’ve been without a union contract since 02/2020,” said Emily Wilcox Gonzalez, a public health nurse and union member, adding that vacancies are taking “a year or more to fill.” Wilcox Gonzalez described…
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