New Director

Kathrina Suarez, NYPNU's new Director, started work on August 11, 2008. She brings a wealth of experience from her years with the Transport Workers Union and will be a tremendous asset to NYPNU.

Grievances and Unit Issues

• NYPNU filed a class action grievance on behalf of all med/surg and telemetry units on which management was unprepared to meet the new day shift ratios as of July 1, 2008. We would like to thank all of the nurses who have documented the consistent ratio violations on these units, thereby giving us the ammunition we need to enforce the contract. Due to management vacations, the grievance hearing has not yet been scheduled. When we have a date, notices will be posted on all affected units. If you are on one of these units, please make every effort to attend the grievance hearing.
• NYPNU brought a third step class action grievance on behalf of all 5 Lachman nurses who are assigned charge responsibilities despite having a patient assignment. Under the contract, nurses who have a patient assignment can only be assigned the 5 resource responsibilities delineated in the contract:
  1. Assuring that all scheduled staff have reported for duty;
  2. Assuring patient assignments are determined according to patient acuity and staff competency;
  3. Assigning breaks and notifying the supervisor if nurses are unable to take breaks as assigned;
  4. Assuring the Emergency Carts/equipment are checked according to standards;
  5. Communicating urgent problems immediately to supervisor on duty.

In the grievance response, management committed to comply with these contractual limitations. Subsequent class action grievances regarding charge/resource responsibilities have been filed on 8 East/Lachman and in the OR.

• NYPNU filed a grievance on behalf of an ER nurse who was denied a lateral transfer to CCU. Eve Dorfman denied the transfer on the grounds that the nurse had an "unsatisfactory work record," but there were no verbal counselings or warnings in her file. At the second step of the grievance procedure, the transfer was granted in accordance with the seniority provisions of the contract.
• We have received some complaints of patients being sent to med/surg floors from the ER without either a faxed or verbal report. If this happens to you, please file an incident report immediately and write a letter to Phyllis Yezzo about the incident with a copy to the Union.

Professional Development Days

Please be advised that Professional Development Days (PDDs) are not at the discretion of management and are not counted in the VHF factor. If you apply for PDDs at least six weeks prior to the completion of the relevant balanced schedule, you should be approved in a timely fashion provided that the conference is job related. If approval of your PDD request is being unreasonably delayed or denied, please contact a delegate or the union office.

Sick Time Reduction

NThere were over 280 RNs eligible to participate in the last Attendance Excellence drawing, which means that there are 6 winners of $2,500 each. The drawing winners are: Elizabeth Braham (ASC), Beth Caligdong (L&D), Eugene Uy (OR), Annabelle Aguilar (X-ray), Irene Eduque (9 Wollman), Stan Nemtsovich (5 Uris).

Through the end of 2009, the Attendance Excellence Incentive Program has been replaced by the Pilot Sick Time Buyback Program. This program enables all members who meet the criteria to be paid out for up to 55.5 hours of sick time. See last month's NYPNU Update for details: Update July 2008.