After working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly two years, healthcare workers continue to demand additional protection and compensation from employers. However, health care companies say it is difficult to afford higher labor costs due to increased costs and decreased revenues due to delayed patient care.

Experts say this will continue to put pressure on the relationship between suppliers and employees, as workers struggle with burnout and employers try to balance budgets and find ways to serve patients.

The number of workers who have signed travel contracts can pay three times the normal wage, which makes the situation even more complicated. This labor transfer puts greater financial pressure on employers who are trying to find employees, and causes labor expenditures to inflate.

With the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, the increase in cases, and the pandemic still being part of daily life, these trends do not seem to abate. On the contrary, another turbulent year is coming for employers and employees as they continue to argue over wages, safety and patient care. But in this conflict, employers and workers will have the opportunity to cooperate on issues that plague the industry.

“I see [this] “This year is still a very difficult year,” said Ivan Smith, a shareholder of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, which specializes in labor and employment law. “There are still many problems with staffing, no doubt. Obviously, a new variant is not helpful at all.”

Throughout the pandemic, the health system has increasingly turned to recruitment incentives and retention bonuses up to Up to 25,000 USD, Usually linked with time commitments to attract and retain employees. As the system’s demand for workers grows and more and more clinicians leave the field, while others are turning to travel contracts, this situation may continue.Employers are launching New recruitment plan for recent graduates, Hoping to tap new workers’ pipelines.

This disconnect has led to a series of union actions and organizing campaigns for healthcare workers. California and other states are planning large-scale strikes because union workers demand higher wages, more staffing, and stricter infection control safeguards. .

According to Joe Guzynski, executive director of the California United Nurses Association/Healthcare Professionals Union, unionization will increase in 2021 and this situation will continue.

Guzynski said the pressure of the pandemic is driving these organized movements. “Next year there will be more and more healthcare professionals who want to organize,” he said. The California United Nurses Association/The Federation of Healthcare Professionals organized five stores this year, representing occupational therapists, speech pathologists, pharmacists, and nurses in California and Hawaii.

Smith said that unionization will “pass smoothly” this year. “You have the perfect storm. You have this pandemic. You have job shortages. You have over-stressed workers, and the Biden government, which is a very union-friendly government,” he said.

The union will enter non-unionized hospitals and promote negotiations with established unionized systems, Smith said. He said the strongest hospitals will be those that work with unions to resolve staffing issues and lobby lawmakers to increase reimbursement rates.

Guzynski said the California United Nurses Association/Healthcare Professionals Union is seeing the employers of its members adopt a “more conciliatory approach.” He said: “You will see that employers are interested in providing incentives and salary increases to solve the shortage, not only to hire but also to retain high-quality healthcare professionals.”

Guzynski was one of the main negotiators in the recent agreement between the union and Kaiser Permanente, based in Oakland, California, which was settled a few days ago 22,000 workers plan to strike November. The non-profit integrated health system proposes a two-tier wage system that will provide new employees with lower salaries than existing employees who are strongly opposed by the union.

Guzynski said that the 21 union federations of the California United Nurses Association/Healthcare Professionals Union agreed to sign contracts to strengthen Kaiser Permanente’s labor-management partnership and establish an affordability and competitiveness task force. “We think this is an opportunity to renew the partnership and redouble our efforts,” Guzinski said.