Descrimination: A full hot meal or soup and a sandwich

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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.

We have a cafeteria that opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. We can eat there or not. Most of us during the day get a salad from the salad bar.

Night shift brings in loads of food - including pizza, chips and salsa, cake, etc.

The hospital isn't mandated to provide food for us - just time for breaks and lunch.

steph

edited to add . . . . we do get free Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
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?

I think I am in the wrong field!! Imagine how that would apply at a hospital? Hahaha...all the free morphine you can handle! :D

Up Vote Up Vote ×
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:

No Joke? You are ACTUALLY furnished a meal!!

It would be a GREAT day if actually got a break... even if I did get one, who had time in 30 minutes to go through the line and get a meal (or actually remember to bring enough money to buy one)?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
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.

honey, if prior grievances are even remotely similar to the one you just filed, i totally understand your union's "lousy track record".

if i had to represent such a grievance, i'd kick your hiny to the curb...

and can guarantee, you'd have much harsher words about my track record.

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU/ER.
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?

Well I would say better than the free graham crackers and pudding I get!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

Better than at my hospital. The food service manager completely closed the cafeteria at night (they used to open it from 12a-3a). There is also a policy that we technically aren't supposed to leave the premises during our lunch breaks. Also, all the delivery places close at midnight. So night shift is almost completely SOL if they forget to bring their lunch. The only thing available is junk out of the vending machine. That's been going on for over a year. Suck it up!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC & Teaching.

Thank you for the feedback thus far. However, I think that there's some clarification that needs to be done.

1) Our collective aggreement states "The parties hereto agree that in every instance the employee shall pay a fair price for any meals obtained which shall in no intance be less than the actual cost of furnishing such meals, and the said cost shall be computed by the Corporation. When employees bring their own meal, they shall use the designated dining area for the consumption of same." In other words all employees are entitled to purchase a meal.

2) Up until the the first week of December, every employee in the building was entitled to purchase a full hot meal of what ever was being served to the residents that particular day. Every employee was treated equally. The only difference was that there was different meal times.

3) After the first week of December the employer singled out two categories of workers and said that they were not allowed to purchase a full hot meal like everyone else.

4) If the employer would have allowed the Practical Nurses and Care Aides to change their break times to eat their lunch after 12:30 pm like everyone else then there would be no arguement. Then everyone would once again still be treated equally and all entitled to purchase a full hot meal.

As it stands now the Practical Nurses and the Care Aides are not treated equally, thus the filing of the grievence.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MSP, Informatics.

all I know is I want to go work at Coors! :beer:

working nights for so many years.... I just got used to brown bagging my lunch. when working days, sometimes all you had time for was to snag some crackers from the floor kitchen as you went by.

every few years, someone from management would remember the night crew, and order a pizza for us if we had to work durring the hospital christmas party. (where employees who were able to go got a free sit down meal) so the occasional pizza every few years was at least an apreciated gesture

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

Never come between a nurse and hot meal! lol

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I think most of you are missing the point here. It's not about shut-up, quit whinning, and be grateful they even provide anything.

Although few places provide meals, the facility that the OP works in does. The issue isn't about the OP being grateful for what is provided. The issue is the Practical nurses and Care aides are being treated differently than other staff. Everybody else but them gets a full hot meal provided. Yes, in a union shop this could be seen as discrimination towards a certain group of employees.

BTW my place dosen't provide meals.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical-Surgical.

Curious, asking if anyone knows any other types of shift work, factory work, for example, how is it handled in their line of work? I agree, any free meal would be cause for excitement rather than complaint, but I see why the OP was angry that it was the LPN's and the care aides who were getting shortchanged as a group.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, case mgmt, agency.

Some places I've worked you don't get a lunch break at all it's so dang busy. But, seriously, be grateful you get something. On nights we usually order pizza or chinese or something. Or we have our own pot lucks. I'd be thankful for soup and sandwich if employer provided. I understand that a certain group is getting soup & sandwich instead of a hot meal, but maybe it's about timing. It was stated they went earlier than when the residents lunch is provided. Perhaps that is the reason.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment