Resident Salary Cuts

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Impromptu

Impromptu

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Anyone else suffer a paycut?

We are at an academic program. The original reappointment letter for next year was signed back in January in triplicate by the GME president and the program director and us. It listed a certain stipend for our next year. In late February we were all called back and told to sign another reappointment letter with a $1000 paycut from the original letter. If we don't sign the new reappointment letter we were told we would not be working here, or rather we would be working for free. We were not given any added benefits or time off (unpaid leave would be lovely). We were not consulted. Reasons given are that the are have received very significant cutbacks in payments and the real support for GME has declined by millions of dollars,

Overall there will be a slight increase from one PGY year to the next, but definitely no cost of living increase to keep up with inflation or energy costs.

Anyone feel empowered to do something about it? I certainly don't. PGY4 year is not the year to get kicked out of residency for rocking the boat.

Thank-you, may I have another?
 
Unfortunately I don't think you can really do anything. This is the new reality.

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So what makes you think you are entitled to a certain salary despite the fact you are aware the GME is short millions of dollars?
 
HondoCrouch said:
So what makes you think you are entitled to a certain salary despite the fact you are aware the GME is short millions of dollars?
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Aside from the fact that that the residency handbook provides a detailed, written list of salaries throughout your residency? Shouldn't that listed salary provide some sense of entitlement to what you were promised when you signed your contract?
 
gtb said:
Aside from the fact that that the residency handbook provides a detailed, written list of salaries throughout your residency? Shouldn't that listed salary provide some sense of entitlement to what you were promised when you signed your contract?
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So if "millions of dollars" are cut from the budget, the residency handbook should make you immune from cutbacks?

What would have them do, take out a loan to cover your salary? Make it somebody else's problem? Disgusting.
 
That sucks.

Technically, you could hold them to their original contract. "Sign the new contract or work for free" is meaningless gibberish. You have a contract, as long as you abide by it, they have to pay you.

But, if they don't, you'd have to sue them. And that's long and painful. Plus, they would probably find a way to fire you, although if you keep good records you and could prove that they retaliated against you, you could probably sue them for that too. 5+ years from now, you might win a big judgment. Or, you'd lose and be broke and not trained.

Or, you could start a residency union. I'm sure CIR would love to hear from you. Note that if there is any retribution from this, there are big penalties. A union will stop shenanigans like this.

Or, you could do nothing. Clearly the easiest thing to do.
 
HondoCrouch said:
So if "millions of dollars" are cut from the budget, the residency handbook should make you immune from cutbacks?

What would have them do, take out a loan to cover your salary? Make it somebody else's problem? Disgusting.
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Sorry, but this quote really irritated me. A written agreement is a written agreement. If I sign a contract saying I will be paid X, I expect that I will be paid X. Period. If there is a change in the financial picture of the hospital, they can look to find funds or make cuts in places that don't impinge on their written obligations first.

Based on your logic, after signing the contract, there would be nothing that would prevent the hospital from saying, "here is a bag of rice and a sleeping bag instead of money this month... "
 
HondoCrouch said:
So if "millions of dollars" are cut from the budget, the residency handbook should make you immune from cutbacks?

What would have them do, take out a loan to cover your salary? Make it somebody else's problem? Disgusting.
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By extension, if the hospital decided to just stop writing you a paycheck after you had a written agreement, then I'd be an entitled brat for taking issue with that?

If you would take issue with that, then when do you draw the line?

It doesn't sound like you know how the real world works. If you sign a written contract, then that's a legally binding statement. That's not entitlement, that's the law. If I pay money for a candy bar, would I be an entitled brat to think I should get that candy bar? No, because I'm not entitled to it, its a legal right. If they didn't give me the candy bar after I paid for it, then I have the legal ability to demand that candy bar.

Could you define entitlement? Or am I feeding a troll?
 
If they fired one secretary/administrator who doesn't do much all day, they could probably give about 50 residents their $1000 that magically disappeared from their salaries on the 2nd contract.
One interesting thing to note is that if a hospital is short on money, it generally won't ever cut nurses' salaries. The reason is that they are unionized and they are powerful. Residents are basically powerless because it's extremely hard to switch from one residency program to another, and program directors and other faculty members, or hospital administrators, can ruin a resident's career.
In the OP's situation, I would do nothing, but it does sound like the type of hospital where eventually bringing in some sort of union like CIR might be useful.
 
aProgDirector said:
That sucks.

Technically, you could hold them to their original contract. "Sign the new contract or work for free" is meaningless gibberish. You have a contract, as long as you abide by it, they have to pay you.

But, if they don't, you'd have to sue them. And that's long and painful. Plus, they would probably find a way to fire you, although if you keep good records you and could prove that they retaliated against you, you could probably sue them for that too. 5+ years from now, you might win a big judgment. Or, you'd lose and be broke and not trained.

Or, you could start a residency union. I'm sure CIR would love to hear from you. Note that if there is any retribution from this, there are big penalties. A union will stop shenanigans like this.

Or, you could do nothing. Clearly the easiest thing to do.
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Its only 1000 dollars. This is clearly the easiest and the right thing to do
 
dannyboy1 said:
Its only 1000 dollars. This is clearly the easiest and the right thing to do
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I'm sorry, 1000 bucks is a lot of money not to legally get what was promised especially when we have so many expenses. Between 4th yr of med school and residency, I may have spent over 15,000 dollars for moving, rent, interviews, step 3 etc. If you work ~80hrs per week, you deserve to be paid enough to at the very least survive.

-R
 
RadOncDoc21 said:
I'm sorry, 1000 bucks is a lot of money not to legally get what was promised especially when we have so many expenses. Between 4th yr of med school and residency, I may have spent over 15,000 dollars for moving, rent, interviews, step 3 etc. If you work ~80hrs per week, you deserve to be paid enough to at the very least survive.

-R
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Agreed. But in this case the OP is starting PGY - 4 and is much closer to the end of his training than the beginning. Doing things like calling in the union, lawyers or riling up all of his co -residents and to risk ticking off the program is certainly not in the residents best interest for the relatively small sum of $1000. This is one of those situations where the best thing to do is suck it up.
 
Renegotiations of contracts are fine if we at least get some concession in return. Bring us lunch once in a while. A bigger discount in the cafeteria (currently a small discount). A couple of extra days off ($1000 is roughly a week's salary). Or announce that the top brass will be taking a paycut, too. That would show solidarity. Any little thing would have been nice for renegotiations. Instead it was a fiat, reneging on the already signed paper.

Again, the best thing to do at this point in training is nothing.

In addition, I am not going to start swiping office supplies or working less. I might feel justified in that, but it isn't the right response.
 
$1000 means a lot more to me as a resident now than it will to me as an attending. That is rent and groceries and utilities and date money. Now is the time I need it.
 
Impromptu said:
$1000 means a lot more to me as a resident now than it will to me as an attending. That is rent and groceries and utilities and date money. Now is the time I need it.
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Yup. Unfortunately making trouble as a resident can also cost you alot more than it would as an attending.
 
There is another option which I will get to in a minute, but you need to consider this: is the letter a legally binding contract? It is possible that your original employment agreement may have said something about these annual renewals and their legal weight. I will assume that it is a contact, however.

I would argue that the second letter is not a contract. In order for a contract to be valid, both sides must give some consideration. In the first contract, you agreed to work for a year (your consideration). In exchange for this, the program gave you money and education (their consideration). In forcing you to sign the new contract for less pay, they are not giving any consideration because they are already bound to pay you and train you. You see in a contract, both sides have to give up something. If they had given you just one extra personal day, that would have been consideration and, thus the new contract would be binding.

So why does this matter? You can wait until you are done training and get your diploma (or whatever) and then sue them. This depends on the length of the statute of limitation on contract actions in your state (typically 6 months, some more, some less). Would I do this? No, because I don't think it is worth 1000 to burn a huge bridge. I just wanted you to know about the possibility.

Ed
 
edmadison said:
There is another option which I will get to in a minute, but you need to consider this: is the letter a legally binding contract? It is possible that your original employment agreement may have said something about these annual renewals and their legal weight. I will assume that it is a contact, however.

I would argue that the second letter is not a contract. In order for a contract to be valid, both sides must give some consideration. In the first contract, you agreed to work for a year (your consideration). In exchange for this, the program gave you money and education (their consideration). In forcing you to sign the new contract for less pay, they are not giving any consideration because they are already bound to pay you and train you. You see in a contract, both sides have to give up something. If they had given you just one extra personal day, that would have been consideration and, thus the new contract would be binding.

So why does this matter? You can wait until you are done training and get your diploma (or whatever) and then sue them. This depends on the length of the statute of limitation on contract actions in your state (typically 6 months, some more, some less). Would I do this? No, because I don't think it is worth 1000 to burn a huge bridge. I just wanted you to know about the possibility.

Ed
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I'm not sure you win on this. The reappointment letter is more of a letter of intent than a contract. The terms are not necessarily set or final. Which is why they have you go back and sign a final contract. Once you sign that contract, it likely says it supersedes any prior terms or agreements. You are basically powerless here. You can make a stink, but in the best case scenario, it may get you that money in exchange for a huge hold up in your career. (Just FYI the statute of limitations is usually a number of years, not months, depending on the state).
 
edmadison said:
Actually, the majority of states have SOL on written contracts that are 6 years or greater according to this reference: statuteoflimitations.net. Very few have limitations that short for written contracts.

Ed
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Careful with that. If you dig a little deeper than a mere google search on "statute of limitations" you are going to find that the limitations for many causes of action are actually different/shorter than what's listed in your very general summary, even though they may involve a "written contract". If it were that easy, lawyers would lose their jobs to google. Also where you reside/work may not be determinative -- your contract my provide for a governing law less generous than your own.
 
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