Mercy Employees See Changes

Mercy Employees See Changes

Thousands of employees at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City will be seeing some changes on their next pay stub after a letter sent to employees

For the first time ever, Mercy Medical Center is on a pay freeze. The freeze will effect their senior leaders, directors and managers, including the one of the newest employees, CEO Bob Peebles.

But Mercy says it's something they have to do to serve their patients better.

"During the times of financial uncertainty as we're seeing now with the current recession, mercy is doing whatever it can to sustain itself well for the future," said Mercy Spokesperson, Mike Krysl.

All employees will temporarily lose the employer match part of their retirement savings plans,  401 k and 403 b.   The hospital will continue to make contributions to their retirement plans. 

"We're blessed that more and more people are choosing Mercy for their care but unfortunately more and more of our patients are uninsured or underinsured," Krysl added.

But Marvin Harrington, the President of the UFCW Local 222, who represents the Mercy nurses, isn't buying that reason.  He says it seems more and more businesses are using the economy as an excuse.

Mercy is one of 19 hospitals within the Trinity Health System that will be temporarily suspending part of their benefits packages.