Posted on 02/28/2010 7:50:10 PM PST by kcvl
The District's largest private hospital has fired 11 nurses and five support staff members who failed to make it to work during the back-to-back snowstorms that paralyzed the region earlier this month.
Dozens of staff members at Washington Hospital Center face internal investigations, union representatives say, and it is unclear how many employees will lose their jobs. On Friday, the nurses union, Nurses United of the National Capital Region, filed a class-action grievance with the hospital.
"I see it as so unfair and uncaring," said Shirley Ricks, a 57-year-old nurse who has spent her entire career at the hospital. "That's it. You call in one day in the biggest snowstorm in history and you're out. No ifs, ands or buts about it. . . . You go from getting a salary every two weeks to nothing. It's scary."
In a letter sent to the staff on Friday, hospital President Harry J. Rider sought to quell rumors that hundreds of people had been fired. He said he expects fewer than 20 people will be dismissed.
"Sadly, we did experience some issue with associates who did not show the same commitment as most of their co-workers to the community, our patients and their fellow associates. They are the few who turned away from their scheduled shifts and who tried -- and are still trying -- to turn the focus on themselves rather than the thousands of Washington Hospital Center workers who fulfilled their commitment to their patients and colleagues, and made it to work," he wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If there is a union and all they are complaining about is unfairness then there has to be language stipulating that they show up or else.
Geri Lee
Union representatives said about 250 of the hospital's 1,600 nurses did not make their shifts at some point during the storms
759 employees who were scheduled to work did not show up. On a typical weekday, the hospital has between 3,100 and 3,350 employees working. The nurses earn an average of $40 an hour.
Uh-oh. Sounds like another “unexpected jump” in zero’s big jobs numbers stat!!
This is the reason that hospitals are bleeding nurses. If they tried to get out and it was truly unsafe, it is unreasonable of the hospital to expect them to risk their lives. I have spent many hours at work in the hospital due to blizzards in the past because I lived close and believed that those who lived further away should be safe. They always showed up as soon as they could.
I am so thankful not to work in a hospital anymore.
If caregivers are not cared for, there will be no caregivers.
I wonder if there is a history of union-management clashes at that hospital leading up to this, and nobody is wearing a halo.
My parents live in Baltimore in a Retirement Community which uses local teenagers as “servers” in their dining rooms. Some of the teens were unable to get to work, so the retirees filled in. The teens that were already at work when the snowstorm hit, were set up in available rooms with cots and spent the night. The buses didn’t run for three days in Baltimore.
Don’t know how it was in DC other than photos I’ve googled. If a person CALLED and explained that they couldn’t get out of their house/apartment, the most the hospital should do is make the person take a “personal” or “vacation” day for those days.
Otherwise, this is perhaps one of the FEW times a “union” is a good thing. However, if a person was seen elsewhere and claimed she couldn’t get to work that day . . . that’s a different story and does deserve some kind of penalty. But NOT firing, in my highly opinionated opinion.
Also, in the heart of Bummer country with ACORN and SEIU... to see something this precipitous is just plain strange. I’d expect to see months of back and forth.
the gov’t was closed, due to the storm, for 4 days. Can we fire them all? Please?
Every person didn't have the same travel conditions - even the gov't was closed for 4 days
Betcha there will be some suits - and rightfully so.
At the hospital where I work , they will send a cab to pick you up if you cannot make it in due to a storm.
It is unreasonable to expect someone to risk their lives if they are not experienced and confident with driving in the snow.
That is why the cab pickup is such a good idea.
The hospital pays for the cab.
The hospital admin staff had the same forecast everybody else did. Solution: reserve rooms at a nearby hotel, add babysitters for those who need it.
“The hospital pays for the cab.”
And where does the money come from for that cab, Kaila?
how were they supposed to get there? The same way our ancestors did for thousands of years! WALK!
yep - like I said, not everyone lived the same distance from the hospital.
If you lived 10-15 miles out - and the snow is 2' or more deep on unplowed roads and the storm is raging - I double betcha YOU wouldn't have "walked"
the cabs weren't running on unplowed roads - even obama couldn't be driven in his limo - he had to be driven in an SUV...for it's 4-wheel drive...like many of us out here in the real world have to.
I bet there is more to this story.. So don’t jump to conclusions just yet.
These nurses likely already had lousy attendence records.
I have tons of co-workers who have used up their 3 personal days for 2010 by the end of February. A few of them by the end of January!! A few years ago one was out of their personal days and was already had a couple of other writeups for various things, a bad March snowstorm hit for about 15 inches. He didn’t show up. Fired.. and I don’t feel bad for him.
Very likely the case here IMO. Many nurses and employees missed their shift during these snowstorms. Only a small handful were actually fired.
Didn’t I just hear on Rush this week that the mayor of DC said that some people were going to have dig out their streets themselves? I think asking people to do the friggin’ street is a bit much. Being from DC, and knowing the inability of the city to deal with 5” of snow, much less the amounts they got, how can they punish people who couldn’t get into work?
How were you going to go thru unplowed streets? The Metro was closed for some of the storm and only the underground portion ran for some of it. C’mon people. Are all hospital employees considered necessary emergency workers? Is it in their contracts that you get fired if you don’t come into work? I dunno. Seems a bit heavy handed.
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