In early 2022, Jordyn Bashford thought it was the best for nurses amid the Covid pandemic.
A few months ago, she signed a contract with a travel nursing agency called Aya Healthcare and left Canada to work at a hospital in Vancouver, Washington.
Before the end of her first shift at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, she said she noticed other traveling nurses earning more than she did and asked for more money. Aya quickly amended her contract and increased her hourly wage from her $57 to her $96.
In January, her rate was raised again to $105 as part of a new contract. She figured that thanks to her high salary and generous living expenses of about $1,300 a month, she and her fiancé could finally make plans to buy a house.
But two months later, when her quota was renewed, Aya lowered her hourly wage to $56, then to $43.80.
“I know travel nursing is fluid and I could lose my job at any moment, but I didn’t expect it. [my hourly pay] 50% down,” Bashford said.
Experts say the boom in traveling nursing during Covid has revealed practices that have existed since the industry’s birth 50 years ago. Attracted by the story of high wages, nurses find themselves far from home with slashed salaries on renewal and seize the nuances of signed contracts. However, the sheer number of nurses with a traveling job, and the difference between what they thought they were promised and what they got, was considerable from traveling nurses across the country on this issue. has led to legal opposition.
This summer, Kansas City, Missouri law firm Steve Siegel Hanson filed a class action lawsuit against four travel nurse agencies: Aya, Maxim, New West, and Cross Country. All pending as of December 27th. Lead attorney Austin Moore said the lawsuit alleges the company pulled a “bait and switch” to provide nurses with contracts at high rates and cut their salaries significantly after signing. As NBC News previously reported, many of the questionable incidents occurred in March and April when demand for traveling nurses, which surged during the pandemic, began to decline.
“Going on a travel mission is a really big deal, and to get there and have your rug pulled out and someone ruining your paycheck, I don’t think it’s conscientious,” Moore said. “They are overwhelmed with tenancy agreements and are struggling to find another job. It’s a real disaster.”
Maxim, Cross Country and NuWest said they could not comment on the pending lawsuit.
In a statement, Aya said the bait and switch allegations were “clearly false.“
“Traveling nursing companies contract with hospitals to provide temporary staff to help the community. Nurses are the heart of healthcare and we value the nurses who work at Aya and strive to ensure they have an exceptional experience with us. “
“Nurses received raises mid-assignment at various times during the pandemic, as evidenced by Ms. Bashford’s employment with Aya. I understand that when they cut subsidies to hospitals through the government, they in turn cut salaries for traveling nurses.”
$5,000 per week
Even in the early days of the industry in the 1970s, nurses’ earnings were below expectations. Advertisements advertised hourly wages of $8 to $11, but according to Pan Travelers, a professional association for traveling nurses, many nurses make less than $6.
According to Pan Travelers, there were no written agreements for travel nurses at the time. That began to change in the mid-1980s. At the same time, the number of agencies doubled due to the high commissions paid by hospitals.
Travel nursing became even more prevalent during Covid. Before the pandemic, there was already a growing nursing shortage nationwide, and the virus has made the shortage even worse. According to her six nurses, who told NBC News, the agency began offering the nurse work contracts and renewals well beyond her usual 13 weeks.
In January 2020, just before the pandemic, there were about 50,000 travel nurses nationwide, or about 1.5% of all registered nurses nationwide, according to industry research firm Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). . That number has doubled to at least 100,000 as Covid spread, but the actual number may have been much higher at the peak of the pandemic, according to SIA.
During the worst of the pandemic, some traveling nurses were earning over $5,000 a week. As NBC News previously reported.
Erin Detzel never earned that much. But in November 2021, her $78 hourly wage will be enough money to move to Florida for her first ever travel assignment with her husband and her two children, she said. I was.
![Erin Detzel](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2022-12/221206-traveling-nurse-Erin-Detzel-mn-1235-a23701.jpg)
Detzel’s 4-month-old daughter had respiratory distress syndrome and was hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The fact that Detzel’s mother-in-law was in Florida also contributed to her move.
“We needed help,” Detzel said. “I did this because I didn’t want to leave my baby in daycare. My mother-in-law is the only family member who can see them.
Detzel rented a house. But by her February after she signed her first 13-week contract, hospitalizations due to Covid had declined and the demand for traveling nurses had declined. Her hourly wage was reduced to her $62. Then she dropped again and she was at $32.50.
Travel nurses are typically hired by recruiters over the phone and through postings on social media and online forums. Recruiters often use words like “contract,” according to 11 of her nurses NBC News spoke to nationwide. All but one said it’s normal for the hiring manager to specify the price.
Bashford said she found the recruiter through an online travel nursing forum. She said she looked for Aya’s job postings at her advertised payout on the website after her recruiters began contacting her.
Detzel got a first 13-week stint with AB Staffing, an agency not named in the lawsuit, after a recruiter called her and told her what she would make. said they agreed.
In a sample of four recruitment posts posted to nurses’ Facebook groups in 2022 by three of the agencies being sued, two, Maxim and Cross Country, used the word contract, while Maxim and NuWest 2 were not used. The post contained specific requirements regarding how long the nurse was needed, salary, hours, room and board. However, the two who mentioned the contract used the term in relation to the duration of the job in general or rather than the wage rate. was.
In the travel nursing industry, hospitals have the power to force agencies to cut salaries when demand drops, said vice president of digital health and innovation at Wanderly, a healthcare technology company for staffing. Robert Longyear said.
Hospitals and institutions have written agreements that allow for variation, Longyear said. In addition to the agreed nurse salaries, hospitals also pay commissions to agencies. 40%according to a spokesperson, American Health Care Associationrepresents a long-term care provider.
Given the cost, if patient numbers and demand are low, the hospital will go back to the travel agency to tell them they are exercising their option to lower the nurse’s salary, and the travel agency will tell the nurse that the salary has been reduced. I will tell you.
Recruiters first broke the news of the pay cuts to Bashford and Detzel.
Bashford said he received the same news about the second cut. “She got a text from the recruiter saying her rate was even lower,” she recalls.
If nurses hesitate, Longyear said: If you want to keep working, this is the new rate.”
He said this has been a practice for a long time, but pay cuts are becoming more pronounced now that travel nurses are more committed and paid more. And he said that with so many nurses pursuing more lucrative jobs, it might be more common for agencies to start someone high and then cut their salaries midway through the job. Stated.
![Liza Collins](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2022-12/221221-travel-nurse-mn-1125-7ebfdb.jpg)
![Sabrina Gere, Edward Rojas](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2022-12/221221-traveling-nurses-mn-1100-7a4376.jpg)
‘at will’
When a travel nurse takes a job, the contract she signs is a “voluntary” employment contract.
NBC News confirms Detzel’s AB Staffing labor contract, Aya contracts for three nurses, including Bashford, versions of Cross Country and New West labor contracts, and Cross Country’s contract terms handbook for August 2021 Did. All refer to the adjustable nature of working conditions. Cross Country and Aya explicitly refer to “voluntary” employment. This means that the employer may terminate the position at any time and the employee may leave. NuWest’s contract explains that employees can be terminated at any time without saying “at will.”
Bashford received the following email: Each time she was approved for another 13 weeks, her recruiter said, “Your contract has been extended.
“I don’t think nurses have ever negotiated successfully,” said Moore, who represents nurses. [the at-will provisions of] one of these contracts. They are formal agreements and the Agency does not change the terms. “
Richard Brooks, a visiting professor at Yale Law School, said some courts ruled that under state contract law, if a company offered the option of abrupt pay cuts or termination, it was within the legality of voluntary employment. said that it could be considered to be
But Brooks and other legal experts say nurses still have some remedies to pursue.
Sachin Pandya, a law professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said discretionary clauses affect “the likelihood that an employer can change the terms of a contract without violating state contract law.” He said the clause may not matter to legal claims that by changing wages, an employer has violated other sources of law, such as fraud or the Wages and Hours Act.
Columbia Law School professor Avery Katz adds that the contract language “isn’t the end of the story.”
“You made these promises to me, even though there was a contract, even though the contract said I had no right to reinstate.” I relied on them by borrowing.”
Aya said Bashford’s experience shows that nurses can negotiate terms of employment. [Bashford’s] The accusation that the company undercut her salary significantly below what she could have reasonably expected in the first place is simply not true. ”
“Can’t Lose Me”
Jordyn Bashford and Erin Detzel are now former traveling nurses.
Detzel moved his family back to Ohio. She said her hospital and her travel agent treated her like a piece of equipment in her hospital stockroom: “I was like supplies,” she said.
AB Staffing did not respond to a request for comment.
Now a staff nurse at another hospital in Washington, Bashford says not only has she bonded with her teammates during the most difficult time of the pandemic, but she’s also worked long hours and effectively trained new recruits on the job. I also remember that. She has six years of nursing experience, two of which she has worked in her ICU. I said it was.
But like Detzel, what bothered her most was being made to feel disposable.
“What really struck me was, ‘You can’t afford to lose me,'” Bashford said, referring to the ongoing shortage of nurses nationwide. “It felt very, very true. And for some reason they thought they could dispose of us, but I just don’t understand.”