A federal judge earlier this month ordered Centura Health to stop its pattern of withholding increases in pay and benefits for the group of nurses who formed a labor union at its hospital in Longmont.

The National Labor Relations Board accused Centura, now known as CommonSpirit, of violating federal law and interfering with workers’ right to organize. On at least four occasions, Centura awarded systemwide pay increases and instituted various employee benefit programs but explicitly excluded the nurses at Longmont United Hospital who narrowly voted in favor of unionizing in 2021.

In a Nov. 16 order, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang declined to require Centura to provide the Longmont nurses with the same compensation the company had delivered to its other employees, believing she did not have the authority to do so. However, she told Centura it cannot continue to bar the Longmont workers from receiving future, company-wide pay raises by using the bargaining process as an excuse.

“The evidence,” Wang wrote, “supports the Board’s legal position that, at least with respect to the ‘across-the-board’ increases, Respondent engaged in discriminatory conduct.”

She directed Centura to email her order to all employees by Nov. 30 and to post a copy at Longmont United Hospital. Attorneys for Centura declined to say whether their client has complied.

In response to concerns about inadequate staffing levels and the effect on patient safety, a group of registered nurses at Longmont petitioned to form a bargaining unit covering approximately 240 employees. The effort to organize received support from, among others, Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who said in a statement, “We can’t afford to have our hospitals so understaffed in the midst of a global pandemic.”

After the voting period and challenges to multiple ballots, the official results in 2022 showed 94 votes in favor of the union and 93 against. Since then, Centura has fought its obligation to bargain with the union, most recently losing its appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this year.

Beginning in September 2021, before the election results were finalized, Centura executives began announcing pay raises and increased benefits for thousands of employees, ostensibly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each time, however, Centura withheld the compensation changes from the Longmont nurses, alleging federal law required it to “maintain the ‘status quo’ until pending matters are resolved.”

The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board conducted an investigation and concluded there was reason to believe Centura was engaging in unfair labor practices. An administrative law judge held a hearing in November 2022 and issued a decision in March agreeing with the director.

“Here, through the various memoranda, Respondent announced that employees will receive wage and benefit increases, except the Longmont nurses whose wages and benefits will remain static at the existing ‘status quo,'” wrote the judge, John T. Giannopolous. “This language points the finger at the very presence of the Union, and employees exercising their right to petition for a union election, as the reason why Longmont nurses will not receive the same wage and benefit increases as their colleagues.”

Giannopolous ordered Centura to provide its Longmont nurses with the same compensation increases it gave to other employees. His decision was appealed to the board itself.

Meanwhile, in September, regional director Matthew S. Lomax petitioned Colorado’s federal court, asking for a judge to award the withheld pay increases to the Longmont nurses and to order Centura to stop using the organizing process as an excuse to withhold further compensation changes.

Kris Kloster, a nurse who supported the unionization effort, submitted a statement to the court about another wage increase Centura withheld after the petition was filed. She said the now-sizable difference in pay between the Longmont nurses and their counterparts elsewhere was making employees angry and causing them to leave.

Nurses “are starting to feel that they cannot afford to be paid nearly $6 dollars per hour less than the nurses at other hospitals, especially those within the same system,” Kloster said.

Wang, in reviewing the petition, conceded she could only act in limited fashion. She could not treat the case as an appeal of the administrative law judge’s decision, nor could she order the relief Giannopolous had ordered – increasing the Longmont nurses’ compensation to parity with their counterparts at Centura.

However, Wang concluded there was evidence supporting the allegation that Centura violated federal labor law, and allowing Centura to keep withholding pay raises would gut the protections for organized labor.

“Without a cease-and-desist order, Respondent is free to continue its conduct (that has already been determined to be unlawful by the ALJ) during the pendency of this action before the Board, the resolution of which could take years,” she observed.

“Nurses are thrilled that the hospital won’t be able to continue to discriminate against Longmont’s RNs in giving systemwide raises, and we are confident that the NLRB will order Longmont to pay the nurses what they are owed,” said Keng Mak of National Nurses United, which is involved in the Longmont organizing effort.

The case is Lomax v. Longmont United Hospital et al.