Stanford health care workers facing mandatory furloughs

Stanford Medical Health Care's COVID-19 testing site in Emeryville (Kristin Furuichi Fong)

Stanford Health Care workers are being forced to take mandatory furloughs during the coronavirus outbreak, which is basically asking frontline healthcare workers to take pay cuts during a crisis, according to the workers' union.

In a news release Monday, Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West said Stanford Health Care is requiring its employees to take 12 furlough days over a 10-week period. The workers were reportedly notified of the upcoming furloughs via email.

"We have been putting our lives on the line treating COVID-19 patients and Stanford Health is thanking us by cutting our pay and harming our families," Chuck Fonseca, a nursing assistant with SEIU UHW said in a statement. "We had no warning that this was coming and there was no discussion. They just sent us an email out of the blue - and most of us are in shock that they would treat us this way."

The union said while many employees make between $55,000 and $65,000 per year, Stanford Health Care's CEO makes over $3 million, and they would rather see their executive cover the cost of their furloughs in a pay cut down to about $2 million instead.

"There is no logical reason for Stanford Health to do this to their lower-paid workers who struggle to get by as it is, let alone take a 20-percent pay cut," Linda Cornell, a unit secretary, said in a statement Monday. "It's a total betrayal, and for most workers it's an eye-opener that shows how little management values those of us on the front lines of this pandemic."