Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

On behalf of the National Association of Government Employees (SEIU/NAGE), and the more than 100,000 workers we represent, including 20,000 at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA), I would like to thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony regarding HR 4089.

SEIU/NAGE supports HR 4089. This bill would restore a meaningful scope of bargaining for Title 38 health care providers at the VA, a critical necessity to boost morale and strengthen recruitment and retention at the agency. Giving health care providers a meaningful voice in their workplace will lead to better care for the American veteran.

In 1991, Congress amended Title 38 to provide VA medical professionals with collective bargaining rights (which include the rights to use the negotiated grievance procedure and arbitration). Under Sec. 7422 of Title 38, covered employees can negotiate, file grievances and arbitrate disputes over working conditions, except for matters concerning or arising out of professional conduct or competence, peer review, or compensation.  Increasingly, VA management is interpreting these exceptions very broadly, and refusing to bargain over virtually every significant workplace issue affecting medical professionals. The broad interpretation Sec. 7422 is leading to significant dissatisfaction among rank-and-file VA health care providers.

We have heard from our local members across the country who have urged our union to make passage of HR 4089 our top legislative priority for legislation impacting the VA workforce. Their concern is that too many highly qualified, outstanding health care professionals have left the VA for other employment because they were unsuccessful in getting someone of authority at the agency to listen to or address legitimate concerns because the issue fell under the ever-growing umbrella of 7422.

The agency has increasingly been unwilling to address those issues that are most important to Title 38 employees, including time schedules, shift rotations, evaluations, fair and equal opportunity to be considered for a different position within the facility, and fair treatment among colleagues. Rather than suffer under a system where they have no mechanism to provide input or air grievances, disenfranchised VA employee simply move on to other employment. It has gone on too long, and it has to stop.

VA medical professionals have extremely limited collective bargaining rights in the first place, and the broad interpretation of Sec. 7422 of Title 38 is narrowing the scope of bargaining to the point that it is practically meaningless. As a result, RNs, doctors, and other impacted employees at the VA are experiencing increased job stress, low morale and burnout. This in turn exacerbates the VA’s well-documented recruitment and retention problems. Chronic short-staffing has been shown to adversely impact quality of care, patient safety, and workplace safety, leading to costly stopgap measures such as the overuse of contract nurses and doctors.

Passing HR 4089 would help to address many of these concerns.  This bill would restore a meaningful scope of bargaining for Title 38 VA professionals by eliminating the “7422 exceptions” (conduct, competence, compensation, and peer review) under the law. 

Eliminating these exceptions will provide these health care providers with the same rights as other VA providers, including psychologists, LPNs, and pharmacists, as well as other federal employees. Title 5 healthcare providers at the VA have full collective bargaining rights. Even nurses and doctors at Army Medical Centers such as Walter Reed, who perform the same exact function as nurses and doctors at the VA, have full collective bargaining rights. Many private sector health care providers have a meaningful voice in their working conditions and participate in hospital affairs. There is no reason for Title 38 VA workers to have these critical rights taken away.

Restoring meaningful bargaining rights will greatly increase morale at the VA. It will also address recruitment and retention issues, which are critical at this time, given the veterans returning home from conflicts abroad. All this will lead to better care for our nation’s veterans. 

SEIU/NAGE greatly appreciates the Subcommittee’s decision to hold a hearing on this matter. I thank the Subcommittee for the opportunity to provide testimony.