Mylene Brooks, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, HR Compliance and Labor Relations at Cedars-Sinai, spoke during City Council’s meeting Monday night to seek exemption for the health care service from the new minimum wage ordinance:
I want to assure you that Cedars-Sinai has a long track record of providing wages and paid time off for personal and sick time for our employees beyond what is mandated by state and local laws including this ordinance. However, we are requesting an exemption from coverage by this ordinance because if applied to cedar sinai and other health care providers the ordinance could jeopardize the safety of patients, employees and the community at large.
The ordinance is inconsistent with existing state and local leave laws and thus Cedars Sinai’s current policies. This ordinance appears to be modeled after the L.A. city-wide hotel worker minimum wage ordinance but we do not operate like a single location hotel. We are a complex and dynamic healthcare system in which clinical and non-clinical service workers move about the health systems locations and community settings like parks and schools to provide care to approximately 2 million patients a year including vaccine clinics and health screenings the ordinance would require that we manually track and record time by our clinicians and support staff who provide services in West Hollywood and Los Angeles.
The administrative burden to implement a manual paper-based hours and location tracking system would be overwhelming and unmanageable at a time when our hospital remains at capacity and our staff have been challenged for more than two years by the pandemic recognizing the special role of health care workers and the fact that health care providers must have the latitude to manage employees to safeguard public health. L.A. County provided exemptions for emergency responders and health care providers from their supplemental paid sick leave order. We respectfully ask the council tonight to make a similar public policy exemption for Cedars-Sinai.
Layering this ordinance on top of Cedars-Sinai’s existing benefits programs creates new administrative obstacles that impact our delivery of critical health care services to West Hollywood and the communities we serve throughout Los Angeles County. We greatly appreciate your consideration of our request.
Given the critical role of healthcare workers in safeguarding public health, similar to emergency responders, Cedars-Sinai requests a public policy exemption to manage employees effectively.
If it’s true as Cedars says that they pay top wages, and that’s easy to confirm, I would tend to believe what they are saying here. They are a top-notch hospital and gave me amazing care. True I have insurance but then everyone should.
Its a lie they dont want to pay the workers a living wage, Cedars only cares about its CEO’s and hire ups. We secure the hospital deal with people yelling, screaming and disrespecting us everyday. $25 is only right because of what we went through during the pandemic
Cedars is more expensive then USC Keck, UCLA Ronald Reagan, & St. John’s
Yes you get what you pay for but don’t save $$ or make money at the patient level to become a second rate hospital.
You can fundraise to build 2 new hospitals but not to pay your workers?
Cedars pays top wages. but if you think hospital workers are on par with housekeepers then don’t complain when you have an emergency and the nurse is filling out a form mandated by the west hollywood city council.
Cedars is a very good hospital but don’t go there without proper insurance or they will gouge you like a Venice Beach used car salesman. Their front line staff deserve to earn a decent living.
Cedars stop being so cheap
Excuse me, But my brother is a Venice Beach used car salesman and while he does make a fortune he claims to make it honestly and above board.
This request is insult of human intelligence.
The main claim is that the ordinance would be an administrative burden on the hospital. Rather than asking for an exemption, it would be more helpful if they could suggest ways to modify the ordinance to reduce the admin costs while still achieving the intended goals of the ordinance including higher minimum wages and paid time off. Just asking for an exemption seems fishy.
If Cedars raises their rates it will affect the health insurance premiums for residents of West Hollywood and surrounding areas.
We already pay a huge premium on health insurance because the very expensive Cedars is our local hospital.
Of course, they are thieves and scoundrels at Cedars–but also great doctors. Please don’t give them a real reason to raise our rates.
Not sure how you believe it will directly affect health insurance premiums. Granted, Cedars is a venue housing excellent physicians of many disciplines but part of the Cedars organization is Cedars Medical Group which has much to be desired in the management of its cases for patients acting as a conduit. Extremely perplexing, inefficient producing a questionable Quality of Care in some instances.
Front line workers deserve the raise and more, obviously
Just raise the price of an aspirin from $50 to $75. That should help cover the additional cost.
Cedars is a cash cow. They make so much profit…….they go on a buying spree in the 4th quarter every year (to not post a profit).
All the reasons outlined in this article , are all valid reasons why Cedars-Sinai should have to honor this ordinance. Cedars-Sinai made 1 billion dollars last year alone. They can afford to give everyone significant raises especially those that are on the front line .
Cedars healthcare workers have risked it all for their patients and families but Cedars-Sinai still fails to recognize us. Cedars-Sinai continues their greed with the 1.1 Billion in profits they made last year, 2021. How shameful an organization can be when you call yourself the Leaders in the medical field and try and suppress your healthcare heroes. Shame on you!!!