Re: Descrimination: A full hot meal or soup and a sandwich
I'd like to second the staff request from Elvish to keep things friendly and reasonable. I'd alos like to ask that we keep the thread on-topic. I have read every single post on this thread, all 159 of them and would like to offer the following recap of the actual issues...
Truth66 is an RN in a unionized Canadian long-term care facility. The prevailing collective agreement in place provides for all staff members to
purchase their meals on-site. Recently the dietary department of the facility changed the availability of the "meal of the day" such that the LPNs and CNAs are no longer able to purchase this meal and are being offered soup and sandwiches instead because the timing of their lunch breaks as dictated by the DoN, is outside the hours that the "meal of the day" is being served. The RNs, administrative staff, housekeeping, social work and therapy staff are all able to access the "meal of the day". Truth66 feels that this is discriminatory toward the LPNs and CNAs and has brought the issue to this forum for validation of her opinion that this is unfair and should be addressed. The meals are
not free, as some posters here have argued, and the issues are fairness toward a lower echelon of employees in their access to the better quality "meal of the day" and the legalities of unilateral deviation from a negotiated and legally-binding contract. Let's use roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed carrots and apple pie, compared to chicken noodle soup, egg salad sandwich and apple pie. It connotes a caste system where the upper class receives a much higher level of benefit than the lower class. What Truth66 is advocating is equality across the board. I believe that she would be satisfied if ALL staff were in the soup-and-sandwich category, because that would be fair. The other issue of contractual tinkering is also valid and grievable.
Arguments based on the state of the economy, decreased reimbursements, potential layoffs, potential facility closures and so on are not germane to this discussion because in Canada our economy is somewhat more stable due to the degree of regulation our banking industry is subject to. There is a collateral effect from the extreme pressures in the US but our economy is much healthier at this time. Our health care facilities are publicly funded and unionized; the likelihood of closure is very small. Canada does not have the bed capacity that would allow for any of them to be lost. There will be some belt-tightening but since there are already insufficient nurses or ancillary staff for the workload, layoffs aren't likely to be included. Again, the issue as raised by Truth66 is one of fairness.
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