Washington state law limits employers’ ability to recover alleged overpayments by deducting money from employees’ paychecks without their consent. WSNA is taking appropriate actions to protect our members’ rights under the contract and state and federal laws. WSNA is filing a lawsuit in state court to try to stop Virginia Mason from making these deductions without employees’ consent as we believe those deductions would violate state law. We have asked the court to order Virginia Mason not to make the deductions and to confirm that the deductions would be unlawful.

WSNA also has ongoing concerns about the transparency of the methods utilized to determine overpayments and those nurses have been unable to track or understand those deductions. We also understand there are issues with vacation and sick leave accruals and deductions. As a side note and not a part of this lawsuit, nurses who believe they were underpaid have the right to understand the methodology and accounting used to determine what they were owed. If you believe you were underpaid, please contact WSNA if you would like assistance.

There is no guarantee that the court will order Virginia Mason to stop the deductions. Even if the court does (now or in the future), that will not mean that Virginia Mason has no right to repayment. It will only mean that it cannot deduct the alleged overpayments from nurses’ paychecks without their agreement.

We will continue to keep you informed about this important issue and actions we take. Questions or concerns? Please contact your nurse rep, Sara Frey at sfrey@wsna.org.