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.
while this appears to be about discrimination, first and foremost, it's about the employer's breach of contract. The meals aren't "a nice extra" or something "terrific" that's been offered by the employer, as previous posters have noted. They are a benefit negotiated by the union as part of the workers' compensation package. By offering a lesser benefit than what was negotiated, the employer appears to be in breach.
Is it worth a grievance? Consider that an employer's past practices are legally binding. So potentially if the union allows the employer to offer a lesser benefit to this group of employees, then theoretically, it must permit the employer to offer that same lesser benefit to another group, without negotiation. The employer gets away with violating contract provisions if the union allows it. It's a slippery slope. What benefit is the next to go?
I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that so many posters respond with arguments along the lines of "shut up and be grateful, because that's more than i get." instead of condemning the op for standing up for her rights, these posters might want to ask themselves why they begrudge someone else a benefit. Why is the argument always "but i don't get that benefit" instead of "why don't i get that benefit, too?"
yes, employers have financial limits, especially in this economy. But that doesn't mean that workers don't have rights. Union contracts and compensation provisions can be changed through negotiation, not unilateral action. As for the op, i hope she remembers that unions are as powerful as their members choose to be.
Like I said before, if this is the only problem facing your facility that is great!
Unions are only as good as the people running them, unfortunately my exposures have only been with idiots!
I have been on both sides of the fence as management and worker, as a worker I would much rather have compensation in money than in hot food. However some brilliant soul thought that was a good idea to place in the contract, probably has kept your pay down.
Anyway, if costs have risen and the facility needs to make cuts than it will make cuts. As I said before, your peers will be thrilled when they lose the ability to get lunch when it is eradicated for all! And it will be to make it fair. The truth is the lunch times haven't been changed, and we haven't heard why they are set up that way. There must be a reason. Truthfully, I think there is alot more to this than you've said.
To the union people, I agree unions have created good work environments for the masses (history says it all), but have also caused lots of problems for business including maintaining bad workers who take up space and don't pull their weight. Protections hurt us as much as help us, cost us money, and place us in adversarial positions with our managers.
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.
An obvious way to relieve the tension over who gets what food is to serve everyone nothing equally.
I am not familiar enought with how unions work to address the legal ins & outs of a union grievance.
However, if I may, I would point out that this would be emotionally hurtful to me if I were an LPN or CNA in this facility. How often are LPN's & CNA's made to feel like they are "lesser citizens," and now the management offers only these two groups, and not the RN's, a "lesser lunch"?
Emotions are a big part of our human experience, and our emotions are often at odds with our logic. Logic says, "be glad for what you have," and "don't complain, or no one will get lunch," but that doesn't address the emotional impact of this practice on the staff.
No wonder people are upset about it, whether it's logical to file the grievance or not. I would be.
While I agree that your place of employment providing ANY food is quite a perk, the OP does have a point. It isn't fair that the earlier employees be served different food from the later employees. Don't get me wrong, I see everyone's point, but if this happened to you, you might feel as the OP does.
I, however, will continue to bring in leftovers and TV dinners for my meal breaks, when I get them that is.
Those nurses who are happy with their mediocre existence as martyrs can continue to suffer. It's that sort of attitude that the organisation relies on to keep nursing down as a profession, as a voice and as a force to be reckoned with.
Some commentors are also right - careful what you wish for. It may be that all staff lose the lunch options - but hey-ho, there goes the organisation's 'perk' to attract staff.
As for those who think Truth66 is lucky to get breaks. I used to get full free lunches - and dessert, as long as I ate with the patients - and then I had my full break aswell. Sometimes I could use my full break to go to the staff servery too and get another meal if I wanted - for free. On weekends we had BBQ. Free.
Now I work somewhere else - and they don't give a free lunch. That's fine. THey don't pay me for my lunch break eiter. That's also fine.
I take myself off for half an hour and no one talks to me til I'm done.
Some Australian nurses agreements have it claused - if you don't get your break in the first 5 hours - you get paid overtime rate. If you get interrupted in your break for work purposes - you can start it again later - and get paid overtime rate until you get it.
What a nursing body will put up with is not down to how others value them - but how it values itself. Many commentors on this thread have shown themeselves to carry a very low sense of self worth.
And it seems like you guys need to talk to your unions a bit more.
@Truth66
It dosesn't seem like the DON is the problem. The breaks were set and I doubt the DON had a lot to do with the Dietary Manager'd decision - though s/he may have been consulted or advised; in which case a little tactless in the least to not discuss with the nursing team.
The Dietary Manager can change as they are permitted to do so.
The DON can set breaks as s/he sees fit to do so.
What has to be challeneged is how the Adminstration will marry these decisions with the employment contract to have meal options available to all staff.
If it were me - and the PN & CNAs were agreable - I'd go for free soup and sandwiches as the pay off.
all of you who are saying "free" meal, please go back and read.....the negotiated agreement stated the right to purchase, not free......this is a change in a negotiated agreement signed off by management and union and is certainly greivable.....please read more carefully
----------
Well, I'd think if one of my posts brought about 6 PAGES of incorrect replies, I'd stand up and clarify. She posted what? Three posts? And never once said "Hey wait!! We PAY for these meals! They aren't free! I should've been more clear in the OP!". That's what I would've done, but she just let it keep on going.
.thumb.jpg.755b83f43c9f3860c778e2fcb2022ecb.jpg){kind=small}
morte, LPN, LVN
7,015 Posts
bingo!