NORWICH – Chenango Memorial Hospital administration and Registered Nurses Bargaining Unit 1199SEI reached an agreement last week on a new pay plan.

After bargaining for four hours, union representative Jim Rundle said the nurses were given two options: To work the same shifts as before and take what they viewed as a pay cut, or pick up an extra 8-hour shift every two weeks.

The agreement is in effect for one year as the nurses’ current contract expires in 2010, he said.

CMH administrators agreed to push back the deadline for implementing the pay plan from March 1 to March 15.

A shift program that was designed eight years ago to recruit nurses to the Norwich-based hospital offered 12-hour shifts for three days a week with a bonus of four hours pay offered by the hospital. The direct care staff, and respiratory therapy, were the only departments within the hospital to receive pay for hours not worked.