Legislation ensures VA health care workers have same workplace rights as other federal employees
Senator Reverend Warnock: “This bill equips the VA to hire the most talented staff and allows its health care workers to advocate for patient safety, all while uplifting their own voice in the workplace,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “As a champion for Georgia’s veterans and health care workers, I’m going to do all I can to get this bill over the finish line”
Washington D.C. — Today, U.S Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced legislation to expand and protect workplace rights of VA health care workers to help ensure they can freely advocate for their patients and working conditions without fear of retaliation. The VA Employee Fairness Act of 2024 would ensure that VA’s Title 38 health care professionals—including nurses, physicians, dentists, and physician assistants who all serve our veterans—have the same workplace rights currently granted to other VA clinicians and federal employees. By providing full collective bargaining rights to these health care professionals, the VA will be better equipped to retain and recruit top tier staff to care for our nation’s veterans, and VA staff can be empowered to speak up about patient safety concerns.
“This bill equips the VA to hire the most talented staff and allows it’s health care workers to advocate for patient safety, all while uplifting their own voice in the workplace,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “As a champion for Georgia’s veterans and health care workers, I’m going to do all I can to get this bill over the finish line.”
While VA employees have had collective bargaining rights since 1991, health care providers are exempted from collective bargaining on matters of professional conduct or competence, peer-review, or changes to employee compensation. As a result, they are prevented from raising grievances about staffing shortages that undermine patient care or negotiating for competitive pay that will attract health care workers to the VA. The VA Employee Fairness Act removes this exemption and grants front line VA health care providers their full collective bargaining rights.
Senator Warnock has long been a champion for veterans, servicemembers, and military families. Last year, Senator Warnock introduced the GI Bill Restoration Act, which allows the family members of veterans to access the VA home loan guarantee, provide educational assistance benefits, and establish a study to fix inequities in how benefits are given to female and minority members of the Armed Forces. Additionally, the Senator also led a bipartisan resolution honoring families of fallen servicemembers, designating the week of September 24-30, 2023, as Gold Star Families Remembrance Week. In 2022, Senator Warnock helped to pass the bipartisan PACT Act, the largest expansion of veterans’ health benefits in decades. The Senator has also long championed efforts to strengthen the health care workforce, including securing $746 million to address health care workforce shortages in Georgia.
In addition to Senators Warnock and Brown, the legislation is co-sponsored by Alex Padilla (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Gary Peters (D-MI). The legislation is also supported by the by National Nurses United (NNU), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), National Association of Government Employees and Service Employees International Union (NAGE-SEIU).