| CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL NYPNU MEMBERS ON THE RATIFICATION OF A POWERFUL NEW CONTRACT BY OVER 98% OF THE VOTE! |
Grievance Update
During the negotiations, the bargaining team and the hospital resolved the following outstanding grievances and arbitrations:
A nurse on 11 Uris, who had unjustly received a final warning and two-week suspension for calling a psych consult on an extremely agitated patient, was completely exonerated. Her record will be expunged, and she will receive full back pay.
The Hospital filed a grievance against the Union when nurses on 11 Uris refused to perform voluntary overtime for one week, resulting in short staffing. Management claimed this was a work stoppage, despite the fact that mandatory overtime is prohibited in our contract. This grievance has been withdrawn.
Crediting MEETH years of service: The Hospital has reached a settlement with seven nurses who had been denied full credit for their years of service at MEETH. These nurses left MEETH for Lenox Hill two or three years prior to the merger, and their status was not adjusted after the merger took place.
Thus they lost seniority, salary steps, and vacation. In contrast, nurses who never left MEETH had all MEETH years of service counted as Lenox Hill years. The settlement makes the MEETH date of hire their seniority date, repositions them on the salary scale to reflect all their years of service at MEETH, and provides a pay out for lost vacation. Consequently, the arbitration has been withdrawn.
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Contraceptive Coverage: Effective January 1st, contraceptives will be included in our prescription benefits. The arbitration over contraceptive coverage has been withdrawn.
Nurses in the brand new MICU and SICU brought a class action grievance to address myriad issues, including the poor layout of the units, nurse/patient ratio violations, and the lack of adequate auxiliary staff. Some issues, such as the placement of the monitors and the location of the intermediate beds, are already being addressed. Alarm and intercom systems will be installed. Weekly staff/management meetings will continue to ensure that all of the issues are addressed.
The subcontracting of the in-patient dialysis unit eliminated nine staff nurse positions. The Union took this issue to arbitration, and the case was heard on October 3rd. Unfortunately, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the Hospital.
Charge/Resource Duty
We now have language in the contract distinguishing charge duty from resource duty and limiting the responsibilities of the resource nurse. An RN who has a patient assignment or monitor duty cannot be designated as a "Charge" nurse. If you have a patient assignment or monitor duty, you may be designated as a "Resource" nurse, but you will have only the following responsibilities:
- Assuring that all scheduled staff has reported for duty;
- Assuring patient assignments are determined according to patient acuity and staff competency, i.e., that all patients have a nurse assigned to them;
- Assigning breaks and notifying the supervisor if nurses are unable to take breaks as assigned;
- Assuring the narcotic and emergency carts/equipment are checked;
- Communicating urgent problems immediately to the supervisor on duty.
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