On April 27, Stanford Health Care staffers were informed over email that they would have to choose between taking paid vacation time or accepting a 20% pay cut as a result of “financial pressures caused by COVID-19.” The pay reduction, planned for 10 weeks, affects employees at Stanford Hospital, Lucile Packard’s Children Hospital, and Stanford Health Care-ValleyCare -- many of whom are front-liners whose work is essential to the treatment of coronavirus. The decision has led to serious backlash from Stanford Health Care staffers - in an open letter sent to the health system administration, more than 500 workers demanded tiered furloughs, voluntary furlough days, and increased transparency.

We, as members of the Stanford community, find it appalling that Stanford Health Care would so blatantly disregard the welfare of its workers during a global pandemic, and we stand with them in their demands. In spite of the essential services that healthcare workers are providing during this time of crisis, Stanford Health Care has callously decided to put profit over people. Workers are being forced to choose between digging into their paid vacation hours or facing an increased workload with reduced pay. Even more egregiously, workers without available vacation hours are being asked to use “negative paid time off” if they wish to take a leave from work, advancing vacation pay in exchange for future hours worked for Stanford Health Care. In other words, healthcare workers are being asked to place themselves in debt to Stanford Health Care if they wish not to work but lack vacation hours.

Although the senior management of Stanford Health Care has presented this furlough plan as a “shared sacrifice,” this language is mistaken. The pay cuts Stanford Health Care is currently implementing will impact the housekeepers and nursing assistants who earn $60,000 or $70,000 a year far more than CEO David Entwistle, who makes over $3 million annually. In addition, Stanford Health Care Employee Labor Relations has declined to meet with representatives of the healthcare workers’ union, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), to collectively bargain regarding the suddenly announced pay cuts and furloughs.

Although the undersigned have different relationships to Stanford, we all recognize how entangled the operations of Stanford Health Care are with that of Stanford University, and subsequently stand in solidarity with health care workers as they condemn Stanford Health Care’s inhumane actions. Stanford Hospital, together with the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, act as teaching hospitals for the Stanford School of Medicine, and medical students and professors benefit daily from the important work that Stanford Health Care staffers perform. Stanford faculty and students who are not directly affiliated with the School of Medicine nevertheless benefit from the profit that Stanford Health Care turns: for example, in fiscal year 2018-2019, Stanford Health Care transferred $120,090,000 to Stanford University. In addition, Stanford Health Care invests in the same merged pool of funds managed by the Stanford Management Company (as of FY 2018-2019, Stanford Health Care had $1.47B worth of assets invested in University-managed pools); Stanford Land, Buildings, and Real Estate manages funding for capital projects such as modernizing the existing Stanford hospital facility; and Stanford Health Care has a 33% interest in StartX, a nonprofit start-up accelerator that funds student projects. Given these financial entanglements, and broadly recognizing the key role that healthcare workers continue to play in combating COVID-19, we cannot in good conscience stand by as Stanford Health Care mistreats its essential workforce in this way.