Roughly 900 physicians at three public hospitals ratified a new labor contract this week, nearly two months after they voted down the same deal for failing to raise pay and address severe staffing shortages.
Attending physicians at Jacobi Medical Center, Harlem Hospital Center and North Central Bronx Hospital voted to accept a contract this week that includes modest salary increases and a compensation pool to boost pay for physicians in certain specialties, according to their union Doctors Council SEIU, which represents 2,500 city doctors.
The doctors reached the contract after negotiating with New York City Health + Hospitals and its private staffing company, Physician Associate Group of New York, since September 2023. Their colleagues at other public hospitals voted to accept the same contract in January, but union members at Jacobi, Harlem and North Central Bronx pushed to continue bargaining so they could get better compensation to address what they say are severe staffing shortages at their facilities. Jacobi Hospital, for example, had an exodus of all rheumatologists last year because of poor working conditions and lower pay compared to other hospitals in the city, according to Dr. Frances Quee, president of the Doctors Council.
The labor agreement that physicians ratified is the same deal they voted down in January. The contract, which spans three years, includes an up to $10,000 one-time ratification bonus and raises base pay by $12,000 over the first year of the contract and an additional 4% in the second, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by Crain’s. The deal does not include retroactive pay increases to account for the year and a half that physicians worked without a contract.
The agreement establishes a flexible pool of $12 million across the public hospital system to raise pay for specialties that get paid lower than doctors at other hospitals, Quee said, adding that the health system could increase that funding over the life span of the contract.
A representative from PAGNY said the company was pleased to reach an agreement with Doctors Council across all relevant locations, adding that the contract “reflects our shared commitment to supporting our physicians and ensuring the delivery of high-quality care to the communities we serve.”
But the deal likely won’t address staffing shortages across the public hospital system in the short-term, Quee said, pointing to pay disparities for medical specialties such as rheumatology. “We knew it was going to be hard to address all the disparities in one contract,” she added.
Physicians voted yes so the union could focus on fighting health care threats from the Trump administration, which has moved to cut Medicaid funding that the majority of H+H patients rely on, Quee said.
The deal comes after Doctors Council physicians from four public hospitals – Jacobi Medical Center, Queens Hospital, North Central Bronx and South Brooklyn Health – planned to go on strike in January. Although the physicians work at public hospitals, they are employed by a private staffing company and thus are not barred from striking by state law.
