A coalition of labor teams on Thursday filed an antitrust criticism with the Justice Division towards UPMC, the large Pittsburgh-based hospital employer, accusing the system of utilizing its monumental clout to depress wages and hurt employees.
In its criticism, the group, which incorporates S.E.I.U. Healthcare Pennsylvania, claims UPMC employees are topic to a “wage penalty” due to the well being system’s dominance in native markets. The criticism describes nurses who’re given heavier workloads than nurses at different hospitals, creating considerations over affected person security, and catalogs what the coalition considers to be labor legislation violations that it says illustrate the powerlessness of workers to enhance working circumstances.
“We’ve got watched UPMC develop and amass energy,” stated Matthew Yarnell, the president of the S.E.I.U. group there, which has lengthy sought to arrange employees on the well being system, which is essentially not unionized. After a collection of acquisitions, it’s Pennsylvania’s largest personal employer with greater than 40 hospitals, 800 medical doctors’ places of work 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 tackle how highly effective organizations can function as monopolies and unfairly elevate costs, an organization will also be accused of working as a monopsony wherein it exerts unfair leverage over suppliers, together with workers.
Well being care and authorized specialists say it is a novel authorized strategy to contemplate the results on employees of widespread consolidation within the well being trade.
Within the criticism, the unions declare that UPMC’s monopsony energy has additionally prevented employees “from exiting or bettering these working circumstances via a draconian system of mobility restrictions and widespread labor legislation violations that lock in sub-competitive pay and dealing circumstances.”
Reached for remark, a spokesman for UPMC didn’t instantly tackle the unions’ declare that it violated antitrust legislation, however defended its therapy of workers. The system “is among the many finest locations to work in all of the areas we served,” Paul Wooden, UPMC’s chief communications officer, stated in an e mail. He stated the system’s common wage was greater than $78,000 yearly.
“There are not any different employers of measurement 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 stated that the well being system assigned nurses primarily based on affected person want and that there was no coverage that may 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 results of an employer’s market energy on employees, and concern about how consolidation impacts labor markets “is gaining plenty of momentum and a spotlight,” stated Jaime King, a legislation professor on the College of Auckland and an antitrust skilled.
“The issue is way larger than a single merger in a single market,” stated Marka Peterson, authorized director for Strategic Organizing Heart, a labor coalition previously often called the Change to Win Federation, which can also be submitting the declare.
The Justice Division might resolve whether or not to undertake its personal investigation and whether or not any prices can be warranted.
The Biden administration highlighted its considerations in regards to the affect of focus on labor markets in a 2021 govt order, and the Federal Commerce Fee not too long ago issued a proposed rule that may ban the usage of noncompete agreements.
Rising consolidation within the well being care trade has additionally targeted 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 each side,” stated Kate Bahn, an economist and analysis director on the City Institute.
And well being care employees, a lot of whom suffered extreme burnout through the pandemic, are briefly provide throughout the trade. The excessive workloads led to quite a few strikes by nurses, together with latest walkouts at New York Metropolis hospitals.
UPMC has usually been criticized for what some describe as anticompetitive conduct, and a report launched earlier this yr echoed a few of the points raised within the criticism.
However whether or not the Justice Division will pursue motion towards the well being system stays to be seen. Whereas federal regulators might seem sympathetic to the idea underlying the unions’ criticism, these instances are difficult. “Monopsony instances are usually not new, however they’re very exhausting to show,” stated Matthew L. Cantor, an antitrust lawyer and associate at Constantine Cannon.
This is able to 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 employees, and prosecutors should resolve whether or not they have sturdy sufficient proof to take motion. “They’re not going to need to combat a case they don’t assume they will win,” stated Elena Prager, an economist on the Simon Enterprise College on the College of Rochester who has served as a visiting scholar with the Justice Division.
