PHOENIX, July 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Two nurses in Arizona have brought class action complaints in U.S. District Court against the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association and 12 other Arizona hospital corporations, charging that for years they have conspired to lower the wages paid to temporary nurses at hospitals throughout Arizona.
The lawsuits charge that the hospital association -- known as AzHHA -- has coordinated the conspiracy by administering a registry program, used by many hospitals in Arizona, that was originally designed to improve nursing quality, but was turned into a cartel to depress nurses wages. AzHHA, with the active support and participation of many Arizona hospitals, controls much of the market for nursing services, and has forced nurses to accept low wages.
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of Arizona sued AzHHA for illegally conspiring to set the wages of temporary and traveling nurses. In response to that suit, AzHHA reportedly has agreed to abandon its anticompetitive practices, but that did not compensate nurses for the years of lowered wages they suffered. Today's lawsuits aim to do just that, by seeking damages for suppressed wages for nursing services beginning in 1997.
"Temporary nurses have suffered because of this cartel arrangement," said David Balto, one of the plaintiff's attorneys. "In a competitive market, nurses would have been paid a fair wage for their services. That did not happen because of the illegal cartel. At a time of a serious nursing shortage, when wages would be expected to rise, nursing does seem to defy the laws of supply and demand: wages have remained flat despite years of shortages."
Another plaintiff is represented by the law firm of Berger & Montague, P.C., a nationally recognized class action firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The firm last year won a $554 million award after a four-month jury trial in Denver, on behalf of thousands of landowners whose property was contaminated with plutonium released from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Also representing plaintiffs is the Phoenix office of Keller Rohrback, P.L.C., also a well-recognized class action firm based in Seattle.
Other defendants named in the suit are: Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association Service Corporation; Banner Health; University Medical Center Corporation; Carondelet Health Network; John C Lincoln Health Network; Regional Care Services Corporation; Northern Arizona Healthcare; TMC Healthcare; Sun Health Corporation; Catholic Healthcare West; Yuma Regional Medical Center, Inc; Navapache Regional Medical Center; and Scottsdale Healthcare.
For further information, contact:
David Balto at 202-577-5424; or dbalto@yahoo.com David F. Sorensen at 215-875-5705 or 1-800-424-6690; or dsorensen@bm.net Mark Samson at 602-248-0088; or msamson@krplc.com