Nurses Claim Bias in Denied Pension Break

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

More than 1,000 city Nurses filed gender discrimination complaints against the city Dec. 21 for refusing to make them eligible for early retirement, as it does with other occupations considered to be "physically taxing."

NANCY KALEDA: A back-breaking job.

Those jobs are defined as requiring "heavy duty and extraordinary effort," and New York State Nurses Association officials assert that high rates of back injuries related to patient care qualify Nurses for the designation.

Job Exacts Physical Toll

"Although the type of work Registered Nurses perform may be different from other occupations currently designated as 'physically taxing,' Nurses spend most of their work hours walking or standing where they are required to lift, move, and reposition patients," said Nancy Kaleda, the senior associate director of NYSNA's collective bargaining program. "The cumulative negative effects on their bodies are no less than those suffered by any employee in a male-dominated profession."

NYSNA officials, who represent 7,100 Nurses at the Health and Hospitals Corporation, have attempted to get legislation introduced twice but have been unsuccessful. They believe the reason is that nursing is traditionally a female-dominated occupation.

Defers to State

Mayoral spokesman Jason Post declined to comment on the matter. A city official said that the city considers the designation of whether an occupation is physically taxing a matter of state law.

The Nurses' complaints were delivered to the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission's Manhattan office on the morning of Dec. 21.

Moving patients can exert up to 2,000 pounds of force on a Nurse's lumbar spine, according to NYSNA. This is part of the reason, union officials say, that nearly 40 percent of Nurses sustain serious back injuries during their careers.

These injury rates are directly linked to the relatively young retirement age for Nurses, NYSNA officials argue, which is 49 on average in New York. And they note that the city would incur no increased cost from the designation, since Nurses who benefit from the change would make additional pension contributions from their salaries.

"That Nurses should have to turn to this is an embarrassment for the City of New York, which supposedly prides itself on being one of the most progressive employers in the nation," said Ms. Kaleda. "It is our hope that the EEOC will see the facts as they are and find that the government of the City of New York has failed its Nurses."