"Mary Hodgkins, a nurse at Los Robles for 16 years and a member of the nurses’ bargaining team, said addressing purported unsafe staffing levels at the hospital was a priority for her and her colleagues.

Hodgkins said the updated agreement included language to improve staffing levels and the promise to hire 40 additional nurses. She expects the new hires to be recent graduates who are paid less than more experienced travel nurses and are also harder to retain.

With the new contract, the nurses will also receive a nearly 17% wage increase over the next three years, more money for taking extra night shifts, increased paid time off accrual, and compensation in exchange for waiving insurance benefits until the end of the year, she said."

Read the story at the Thousand Oaks Acorn.