Descrimination: A full hot meal or soup and a sandwich

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Specializes in LTC & Teaching.

Just when I thought our management couldn't get any more pathetic. Well, they have pushed the envelope even further.

At the begining of December the dietary manager decided (without notice) that the meal times during the day were going to change. Staff were not going to be served a full hot meal until after 12:30 pm, after the residents have all eaten their lunch. However, there are two categories of workers that usually have their lunch earlier which is 10:45 am and 11:15 am. They are the Practical Nurses and the Care Aides. For these workers they will only be entitled to have hot soup and a sandwich.

Well this didn't sit too well with these workers. So they decided on their own to change their lunch times in order for them to have the same full hot meal options that the rest of the workers were having in the building. Well the Director of Nursing got wind of this and she was not impressed. She ordered the Practical Nurses and the Care Aides to go back to their previous meal times and any change in staff meal times must go through proper channels and put to a vote with the union.

I have since filed a descrimination grievance and nothing will be looked into until after the first week of January. However, with this particular union's lousy track record of not wanting to hold the employer accountable on anything, I'm not holding my breath. So for over a month the Practical Nurses and the Care Aides will be served the equivalant of a soup kitchen at lunch time, even though their shift starts the same time as other departments (including the R.N.'s) in the building and will be treated as second class health care workers. This has created enourmous amounts of unnecesary tenstion through out the building.

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I didn't realize that employers were required to provide meals for it's employees.

Nice. ;)

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Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.

I think it's great that anyone is fed at all! How about a scheduled lunch? Many of us can only dream.

Are you guys kidding? Seriously, while this may seem discriminatory I am sure the schedules were made for a reason. In this economic environment the dietary manager's budget may have been cut...perhaps she doesn't have enough workers for the AM to cook hot meals. Whatever the reason, you could all be brown bagging it!

Why does everyone have to see the glass half empty? And really, what do your co-workers have to do with it? Are you saying that your union negotiated for hot meals? If so, you have a grievance....if not, eat your soup and sandwich. Be happy you don't have to buy lunch. Don't look for problems with your fellow workers. They didn't do it.

Maisy

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I think it's great that anyone is fed at all! How about a scheduled lunch? Many of us can only dream.

I remember my days as Nursing Home CNA.

Sometimes we got lunch. But we had to bring it, no food provided or available for purchase. Of course, purchasing food would have been tough to do everyday on my $7/hr wage.

Also, no refrigerator to keep your food in, and no microwave to heat it up, so had to be real careful about what you brought.

"Only" a bowl of soup and a sandwich, huh? That made me laugh.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

LOL, yep, at my workplace we take care of our own meals. Better be careful or they'll stop providing meals altogether. Never heard of anyone but restaurants providing meals to workers.

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

I ate my carry in from home left over supper the other "night" at 6am----I work 7p to 7a. 6am was the 1st time I had all shift to even think about eating---I would be thrilled if my hosp gave me hot soup and a sandwich each shift!!

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Specializes in LTC.

I agree with the above poster...sounds like you guys are just trying to find something to whine about. Sometimes management decisions are made that don't seem to make sense to those they affect. I am sure the management would not be trying to send a message to LPNs and CNAs since they most likely make up the majority of their staff. Eat your soup and sammie and move on. You should be so lucky in todays economy to have a job let alone a free lunch to go with it.

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Specializes in LTC.

One more thing....the ALF I work for provides us with free meals AFTER all the residents have eaten. We can REQUEST certain things, but it is not guaranteed. If they run out of food, we get a sandwich. They did this to decrease food costs. Maybe that was why the dietary manager changed the meal time. It worked and I eat my sandwich with a smile on my face when I get one instead of the hot entree.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Peds, OB, L/D, Ortho.

I would be so happy with a sammich and some hot soup!!!!!!!!!!! 15 min. and I can call that a supper break! So...quit whining!:twocents:

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I know a guy who used to work at the Coors plant in Colorado. They were allowed to drink free beer on the job. How about that for a fringe benefit?

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While it would annoy me a little that some animals are more equal than others, that's reality. It is also reality that the hot meals, more than likely, are not ready that early.

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Specializes in Med/Surg ICU, NICU.

No free lunch here either. Soup and a sandwich costs me 5.75 in the cafeteria. If I want the hot meal entree they are serving it is 7.95. They do provide a meal for us on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I guess I appreciate what little they do give me since they are required to give me nothing.

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