Ed. Note: The following article is a news release provided by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.

Registered nurses at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia voted to approve a new three-year contract agreement that provides some additional patient care protections and economic gains Thursday night.

The pact also protects the RN’s legal rights, a key issue in what had been a long dispute.

“We know these last few months have been difficult for our nurses,” said Mark Puleo, vice president and chief human resources officer for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. “We appreciate their continued dedication and professionalism.”

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United represents the 650 RNs at the northern Los Angeles County hospital.

“Our nurses were united and strong for months in our dedication to protecting our patients and our profession,” said Henry Mayo RN Sandra Dorso who is also a nurse negotiator at the time of the settlement earlier this month. “We’re pleased to win an agreement that defends our rights, and will also promote retention of experienced nurses for our community.”

“This agreement has provided the nurses with protection and remedies to continue to fight for our patients rights as well as for ourselves,” said Henry Mayo RN Susan Salkeld.

Among the provisions, the hospital agreed to end a practice of having RNs double up or “buddy” during meal and rest breaks – assigning another RN to cover for the nurse on break in addition to her own patient assignment putting patients at risk– which violates state law on minimum staffing protections at all times.

“We are fortunate to have a terrific nursing staff here at Henry Mayo and we are very grateful they voted to ratify this agreement,” said Puleo. “The agreement not only provides our nurses competitive wages and benefits, but also provides for a system of arbitration that serves and protects our nurses, the hospital, and most important, our community.”

The RNs will earn pay increases of up to 24 percent over the 3.4 years of the agreement, retroactive to January when the prior contract expired.

Over the past year, the RNs held a number of vigils and other protests to highlight concerns. One important issue in the dispute was a hospital demand that the RNs surrender their right to sue over employer discrimination and wage and hour violations, and participate in class action suits.

Nurse negotiators won agreement from the hospital that RNs can be protected by opting out of the demand and continue to have full legal rights.