Assembly Standing Committee on Labor and Employment

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present SB 828, which is an urgency measure that moves the start date of the healthcare minimum wage by one month to July 1, 2024. SB 525 provided a historic wage increase to more than 450,000 healthcare workers, mainly women and people of color. We were just talking about the diversity.

In one ER room, there were 62 ethnic groups represented. And they take care of us and took care of us during the pandemic. They keep our healthcare system functioning. It is clear that these men and women and workers need this help, need this to help support their families.

I also appreciate and acknowledge the healthcare employers that recognize this and have already begun to plan their increases. SB 828 reaffirms the goals of SB 525 while aligning SB 525 with the budget year. Thank you. I respectfully ask for your aye vote and have Matt Lege here to speak on behalf of SEIU.

Good morning. Matt Lege on behalf of SEIU California, here in support of SB 828. We were the sponsors of SB 525, and we're really proud of that work and the deal that we were able to get to to allow that bill to get implemented and appreciate the various provisions of that bill to make it easier to implement on employers as well.

We sponsored SB 525 because we are in a healthcare workforce crisis. We have a shortage of 500,000 healthcare workers before the pandemic. After the pandemic, with all the trauma that workers went through, more and more healthcare workers are leaving the profession.

The number one thing you can do to help retain and attract healthcare workers is to provide wage increases. SB 525 allows that. This bill does align SB 525 and implementation dates with the state's fiscal year. So we think this is an important step to continue to work on the implementation of this bill, of the law.

As Senator Durazo mentioned, it's around more than 70% women and 70% workers of color who will be receiving the wage increase. So really important to address the inequity of our state. So, just with that, I appreciate the time. And I know we have a lot going on today, so I'll close by saying, you know, really appreciate everyone being here this morning. Appreciate the committee willing to hear this, and ask that you respectfully vote aye on this bill.

Thank you. Now, we will move to additional witnesses in support. We ask that you just state your name, affiliation, and position on the bill.

Good morning. Kat Scott, Senior Vice President of State Relations and Advocacy at the California Hospital Association in support.

Hi. My name is Fabunmi Sands, Kaiser Morse Emergency Room Department, ED Tech II. Thank you. I have support of the 828 bill. Thank you.

Hi. I'm Tonia Canavan, and I'm an LVN at San Francisco General in San Francisco. And as a healthcare worker, I do support the SB 828. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Julia. I'm an RN case manager for Alameda County Highland Hospital. As a healthcare worker and member of SEIU 1021, I support the SB 828.

Good morning. My name is Melissa Calendar. As a courtroom clerk, Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, Hayward Hall of Justice. As a government employee and local member of SEIU 1021, I support SB 828.

Hello. My name is Ryan Williams. I work with SEIU 1021 from Sonoma County. I'm here today to support SB 828.

My name is April White, and I am a receptionist at Kaiser in Tracy, California. And as a healthcare worker and a UHW Member, I support SB 828.

Good morning. My name is Marquetta Willingham. I am a senior surgical technologist with Kaiser South Sacramento. I am with local or SEIU-UHW, and I support SB 828.

Hi. Yes, my name is Tiara, and I'm a teleservice representative at Kaiser Sacramento. And as a UHW member and healthcare worker, I am in support of 828.

Hi. I'm Robin. I'm a medical assistant at Dignity Health in Redding. And as a, UH member, UHW member, I support 828.

Hi. My name is Denise Owen. I'm a certified surgical tech up in Red Bluff for Dignity. As a UHW member, I support SB 828.

Hi. My name is Edela Green. I'm an anesthesia tech for Dignity Health at Woodland, and I support SB... Sorry, 828.

A little short here. Hi. My name is Waymond Fathery, and I work in the Willowbrook section of Los Angeles County. And my local is SEIU USWW, and I support SB 828. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Darren Archer. I'm an EVS tech at Los Angeles General Medical Center in LA. As a healthcare worker and member of the SEUI West, I support SB 828.

Thank you. Do we have any witnesses in opposition?

Madam Chair and Members, Theo Pahos representing Tenet Hospitals. Just to be clear, we're not in opposition. We are merely concerned today. Wanted to flag what we believe is an important issue for the committee. Tenet Hospitals currently has seven hospitals in the state. Last time I testified before this Committee, we had 13.

Just this year, we sold off six of our hospitals to the UC system. We are a huge provider of the Medi-Cal program. In all of the markets that we serve, we are the primary Medi-Cal provider, even those markets where there are nonprofit operators. We are organized across our entire fleet of hospitals and have always been, and very much value the partnership we have with labor. However, there is a provision in the bill that we understand we couldn't change today because of the timing required to get this in effect by the deadline, but hopefully for consideration in a follow up bill.

And that is the following. The bill sets the wage rate for hospitals based on type of hospital and size of hospital using 22 data. And, of course, when they negotiated the deal, they had to pick a date and time, and it could not accommodate for small fluctuations in employment. Correct? But in this case, we have sold nearly half our fleet. We have just a little bit over half the bids we had just a few months ago. So the rate that we'll be required to pay under the current text in this bill is for a hospital we are not anymore.

And the problem with that is is that we compete in some markets with some very thin margins, as you would imagine. The Medi-Cal market is a very tight market. We were proud of what we've been able to do with it and how many people we've been able to serve, but that is a difficult market to work in. And so we would just want to flag this issue, hopefully for consideration and follow up bill. And we thank you for your time.

Thank you. Do we have any additional witnesses in opposition? Seeing none. I would like to establish quorum. Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Okay. I see no other witnesses. We've established quorum. Senator, would you like to close? Oh, sorry. Members, would you like to ask questions?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy to move this bill, and I want to thank the author for her continued leadership and fortitude on being able to support our healthcare workers that have been at the forefront of so many crises lately and definitely deserve to have this level of support for their futures here in California.

And I did want to just offer the opportunity to see, because I had heard in reviewing this, the opposition's, I guess, implementation points in that, if the conditions do change with regard to the type of hospital or the size of service, the number of enrollees. Knowing that there's no flexibility here, how should they be able to respond I guess in different categories that might apply here if their conditions change going forward, if that's something that you might be looking at for future consideration?

I think for future consideration. For now, we want to get this done under the conditions that SB 525 was passed. So we want to get this done, and then we could think about...

That's fair. It is kind of a reasonable implementation question that says, like, you know, okay, well, if I should be in this bucket, you know, which was designed using 2022 data, but my conditions have changed such that I actually should be over in that bucket. We just want to be fair to all parties, I think, as time moves forward. But thank you again for this bill and, you know, excited to see its update.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will save some time and line my questions or my comments with my colleague here. As a Member that represents a facility, I understand that you can't... Hundred employees here and there, that's not doable. But when you have 6000 employees and you're down to 3000, I think there should be a mechanism that they can kind of readjust, like, how we implement this as well. So I appreciate your willingness to continue to work on this, and I'm happy to support it today.

Thank you.

Additional comments? Okay. Well, thank you, Senator, for bringing this bill to us today and making sure that, you know, the raises are aligned with the state's budget and, you know, gives the parties a little extra time to make any other necessary changes or, you know, conversations.

We're all committed, as you've heard, to making sure that our essential healthcare workers get the raises that they deserve. And, you know, they make sacrifices for us every single day. And, you know, this is one of the least things we can do. So I appreciate you for bringing this forward today. And with that, do we have a motion? Do we need a second? Second. Secretary, please call the roll.

The motion is do pass to the Assembly floor. [Roll Call]

The measure is out. We will leave the... Do we want to... We will leave the roll open for absent Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Members and Chair.

Thank you, Members. We have the roll open.

On SB 828. [Roll Call]

That measure is out. This concludes our Labor and Employment Committee. Thank you.