A coalition of labor teams on Thursday filed an antitrust grievance with the Justice Division in opposition to UPMC, the large Pittsburgh-based hospital employer, accusing the system of utilizing its monumental clout to depress wages and hurt staff.
In its grievance, the group, which incorporates S.E.I.U. Healthcare Pennsylvania, claims UPMC staff are topic to a “wage penalty” due to the well being system’s dominance in native markets. The grievance describes nurses who’re given heavier workloads than nurses at different hospitals, creating issues over affected person security, and catalogs what the coalition considers to be labor legislation violations that it says illustrate the powerlessness of staff to enhance working situations.
“We’ve watched UPMC develop and amass energy,” mentioned Matthew Yarnell, the president of the S.E.I.U. group there, which has lengthy sought to arrange staff on the well being system, which is basically not unionized. After a sequence of acquisitions, it’s Pennsylvania’s largest personal employer with greater than 40 hospitals, 800 medical doctors’ workplaces and clinics, and a well being plan. With working income of $26 billion final yr, it employs about 95,000 folks.
Whereas antitrust instances steadily deal with how highly effective organizations can function as monopolies and unfairly increase costs, an organization will also be accused of working as a monopsony through which it exerts unfair leverage over suppliers, together with staff.
Well being care and authorized consultants say this can be a novel authorized method to think about the consequences on staff of widespread consolidation within the well being business.
Within the grievance, the unions declare that UPMC’s monopsony energy has additionally prevented staff “from exiting or bettering these working situations by a draconian system of mobility restrictions and widespread labor legislation violations that lock in sub-competitive pay and dealing situations.”
Reached for remark, a spokesman for UPMC didn’t straight deal with the unions’ declare that it violated antitrust legislation, however defended its remedy of staff. The system “is among the many greatest locations to work in all of the areas we served,” Paul Wooden, UPMC’s chief communications officer, mentioned in an electronic mail. He mentioned the system’s common wage was greater than $78,000 yearly.
“There aren’t any different employers of dimension and scope within the areas UPMC serves that present good paying jobs at each stage and a median wage of this magnitude,” he added.
He additionally mentioned that the well being system assigned nurses primarily based on affected person want and that there was no coverage that might prohibit an worker who left one facility from being rehired at one other one.
However federal regulators have signaled an elevated willingness to have a look at the consequences of an employer’s market energy on staff, and concern about how consolidation impacts labor markets “is gaining lots of momentum and a spotlight,” mentioned Jaime King, a legislation professor on the College of Auckland and an antitrust professional.
“The issue is way larger than a single merger in a single market,” mentioned Marka Peterson, authorized director for Strategic Organizing Middle, a labor coalition previously referred to as the Change to Win Federation.
The Justice Division may resolve whether or not to undertake its personal investigation and whether or not any costs can be warranted.
The Biden administration highlighted its issues concerning the affect of focus on labor markets in a 2021 govt order, and the Federal Commerce Fee lately issued a proposed rule that might ban using noncompete agreements.
Growing consolidation within the well being care business has additionally centered some consideration on fallout among the many work drive. Some analysis into hospital mergers has proven a discount in nurses’ wages. “Well being care stands out as being targeting either side,” mentioned Kate Bahn, an economist and analysis director on the City Institute.
And well being care staff, a lot of whom suffered extreme burnout throughout the pandemic, are in brief provide throughout the business. The excessive workloads led to quite a few strikes by nurses, together with latest walkouts at New York Metropolis hospitals.
UPMC has typically been criticized for what some describe as anticompetitive conduct, and a report launched earlier this yr echoed among the points raised within the grievance.
However whether or not the Justice Division will pursue motion in opposition to the well being system stays to be seen. Whereas federal regulators might seem sympathetic to the speculation underlying the unions’ grievance, these instances are difficult. “Monopsony instances will not be new, however they’re very onerous to show,” mentioned Matthew L. Cantor, an antitrust lawyer and companion at Constantine Cannon.
This might be the primary case to rely totally on the argument {that a} highly effective well being care employer is utilizing its clout in ways in which hurt staff, and prosecutors should resolve whether or not they have sturdy sufficient proof to take motion. “They’re not going to need to struggle a case they don’t suppose they’ll win,” mentioned Elena Prager, an economist on the Simon Enterprise Faculty on the College of Rochester who has served as a visiting scholar with the Justice Division.
