healthcare workers Archives - The Arizona Sun Times

California Senate Passes $25 Minimum Wage for Healthcare Workers

June 5, 2023 The Center Square

A $25 minimum wage bill for healthcare workers was passed on Wednesday in the California Senate. The partisan bill did not receive a single Republican vote in its 21-11 passage. Authored by Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), and championed by the Service Employees International Union, the bill proposes to increase the state’s minimum wage for healthcare workers.

Healthcare workers at general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, medical offices and clinics, behavioral health centers, dialysis clinics and residential care centers as well as as certified nursing assistants, patient aides, technicians, and food service workers, among many others can all expect a wage increase, if the bill becomes law. All paid work performed on the premises of any covered health care facility, regardless of the identity of the employer qualifies for the increase.

Biden Admin to Reverse Trump-Era ‘Conscience’ Exemption for Healthcare Workers

April 21, 2022April 20, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Biden Administration’s Department Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed that it plans to eliminate a policy implemented during the Trump Administration that allows healthcare workers to cite religious or moral beliefs when seeking exemptions from performing certain acts in the line of duty.

Gov. Reynolds Announces Funding to Train Teachers, Health Care Workers, Aircraft Techs

January 19, 2022January 18, 2022 The Center Square

Several career-focused educational grants and funding opportunities were announced last week for Iowa institutions.

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced funding initiatives in her 2022 Condition of the State Address, including the first-in-the nation Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Grant Program.

Through the program, current high school students can earn paraeducator certificates and associates degrees, and paraeducators can earn their bachelor’s degree while learning and working in the classroom. The program starts in the 2022-2023 school year.

Tea Party Patriots and Job Creators Network Praise Supreme Court Ruling on Biden’s OSHA Vaccine Mandate

January 13, 2022 Cooper Moran

Tea Party Patriots Action (TPPA) and the Job Creators Network (JCN) praised the ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court that prohibited President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private businesses.

The mandate, which would have been enacted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, could have forced businesses with 100 or more employees to mandate the vaccine or weekly testing.

Supreme Court Blocks Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for U.S. Workers, Allows Mandate for Healthcare Workers

January 13, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Supreme Court with a cherry blossom in the foreground

In a Thursday afternoon ruling, the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s OSHA vaccine mandate that would apply to American workers.

The court allowed a separate policy, that requires vaccinations for most health-care workers at facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding, to stand.

Nurses Blast New CDC Emergency Guidance That Allows Healthcare Workers Infected with COVID to Return to Work

December 29, 2021December 28, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Healthcare workers are up in arms over a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emergency guidance that allows healthcare workers who have had “higher risk exposures” to COVID, and even those infected with COVID to return to work after a five day quarantine as long as they’re asymptomatic.

Nurses groups are condemning the CDC’s guidance as “potentially dangerous” for both workers and patients.

Earlier this month, the CDC issued the alert to health care workers across the United States as a “contingency” plan for anticipated staffing shortages due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by Maine Healthcare Workers Challenging Vaccine Mandate

November 1, 2021October 31, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Maine healthcare workers attempting to block the state’s vaccine mandate.

The group of unvaccinated workers argued that the law violated their First Amendment rights because the law doesn’t have a religious exemption.

According to the Associated Press, Maine is one of three states including New York and Rhode Island that have vaccine mandates that lack religious exemptions for healthcare workers.

Arizona Attorney General Brnovich and Nearly Half the Attorneys General Send Warning Letter to Biden About Vaccine Mandate, Include Policy Concerns

September 19, 2021September 18, 2021 Rachel Alexander

After filing the first lawsuit in the country against President Joe Biden over his sweeping business COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich next signed onto a letter with 23 other attorneys general to Biden listing their objections, including non-legal ones. The attorneys general stress that the mandate will drive healthcare workers out of hospitals where they are desperately needed. If Biden does not reverse course, the 24 threaten to sue the administration.

“President Biden’s vaccine mandate lacks both legal authority and integrity,” Brnovich said in a statement. “I am proud to stand alongside my colleagues to push back on this assault on state sovereignty and the liberties of Americans.”