Filed a Grievance against my Manager....now I'm worried

[Lori75]

Today I formally filed a grievance with my union against the Manager of Med/ Surg. I orientated on the Medical floor. I have been working in the Extended Care Unit up until now. I am a new LPN, After I finished my orientation I expected the phone to be ringing off the hook with shifts (I am Casual). They are very short staffed right now.

Well... the weekend goes by and NO CALLS!!! I actually turned down some 6 hr shifts a while back for the ECU, because I knew I would be getting calls for the 12 hr shifts on Med Floor. So I called staffing on Monday morning (June 30th) to see if I was on the call list for the Med floor, and they said the MGR had never called down with my name for the list. It is quite apparent she forgot about me, because this was our long weekend in Canada, and they were so short staffed a whole 12 hour LPN shift never even got filled. Every staff member I have spoken to has never heard anything like this. Usually you start working almost immediately post orientation. I need some encouraging words. I wanted to puke when I had to deliver the grievance form to my Manager today! :barf01:

[Freedom42]

That isn't what the poster was saying at all...and I think you know that.

The purpose of having a union (in the perfect world) was so the nurses could do their job ethically, professionally, and be a TRUE patient advocate and not have to worry if their non-union manager didn't care about them having more patients than they could handle, working in an unsafe environment, or being afraid to write an incident report on a physician for fear of retaliation.

It wasn't designed to create an expedited process anytime you didn't get every day off you requested, got called in 3 times to Suzy Q's 4, you get the picture.

Since my husband is an Occupational Psychologist, he also consults with companies that does productivity studies on employees, and again, even though I am pro-union, all unions are not created equal.....he consulted on this one job for a unionized call center, and noticed that they were wasted a TON of time on the calls, which led to them not taking enough calls, which caused the company to hire more employees, which cost them more money.

I will NEVER forget when he came home for the weekend and told me then he was interviewing an employee and told him that he consistently took 17 calls an hour, but wanted to know if he could do 21 or better (didn't tell him he HAD to...just asked if he COULD).

The employee looked him right in the face and said, I don't have to do 21 because 17 is the UNION MINIMUM.

I disagree. I've read a lot of posts on this board that imply that standing up for yourself and your pay check somehow conflicts with being a good nurse. Yes, nursing is a profession that demands high educational standards and ethics. But there's nothing wrong with expecting to be compensated as your employer has guaranteed to you in writing.

In fact, that is the purpose of a union: To make sure that both employer and empoyee keep their promises. Every contract I've ever worked under or overseen has a process that outlines when and how employees will be awarded overtime and how quickly management must address employee requests. The point is to make sure that the newest employees aren't forced to work terrible hours nonstop while more senior employees pick and choose their overtime.

I have to wonder why the op's manager doesn't simply post an overtime rotation sheet indicating who is next eligible for overtime and who has refused overtime. Open communication is the best way to avoid grievances and ensure everyone that both employer and employee are observing the terms of the contract.

As for union employees wasting time... union employees doing the bare minimum... sounds like management isn't managing too well. Contracts are, after all, two-way streets.

[Cherry2000]

Coming from a union background for the last 5 years....

IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE: Always go to the root of the problem first. It was said that the supervisor is a bit scatter-brained so that leads me to think that not getting called was accidental. I would have brought it up to the supervisor myself and given her an opportunity to make it right. (In my contract that would mean the company "owed" you your opportunity first before anyone else). If she wasn't willing to do that, then the union rep should have stepped in and spoken to her. THEN if that didn't work a grievance should be filed. I've found that if this process is followed, more often than not, things will be corrected without a grievance and life goes on.

If you seriously feel that you made a mistake, you have the option of pulling your grievance. Now that its already been filed, it's honestly too late for that. The supervisor already knows...and so does HR. Really, your rep should have spoken to your supervisor on your behalf first anyway. I wouldn't write a letter, but if she is approachable, and even if you feel uncomfortable, try to initiate a conversation with her and explain why you did what you did (if you feel like you shouldn't have filed it).

As far as the union members only doing minimum work...well that is the company's/hospital's fault. I have been through that also. The industry started to decline and all the sudden the company expected so much more of the employees. People that had done the minimum for 20+ yrs didn't know what to do. The union members may use the contract as an excuse but so do companies! They will tell themselves that their hands are tied and they can't discipline the employees. In reality they can, but they have to have all the facts and documentation. Its a lot of work, so instead they just complain about the union. That is soooo much easier!