In the event of a lay-off, who gets axed first?

caliotter3 · Mar 20, 2009

Unless there is a union involved, it goes by whatever criteria the employer chooses to use, to include getting rid of the person(s) that is not liked. Job performance does not have to have any influence whatsoever, nor does longevity. Employment at will.

LilyBlue · Mar 20, 2009

Thanks for your response. Does anybody have any experience with this? How did your institution decide?

DeepFriedRN · Mar 20, 2009

I work in a union hospital. Here they have to lay off by seniority, meaning last ones hired, first ones laid off. And basically it's done on a hospital wide basis, so tha if you work in tele, and there is an ER nurse that has less seniority, she will be the one laid off, but then the tele nurse would have to be moved to ER potentially if their staffing is stressed by the loss. So it can be difficult for the ones that get laid off, and the ones that get left behind. But, at least they still have a job.

caliotter3 · Mar 20, 2009

I worked at a facility that did layoffs. There was no union. The person making the decision did not use seniority or job performance as criteria because the people laid off would not have been chosen if either of those factors were the deciding factors.

Nursebarebari · Mar 20, 2009

According to our union contract, the junior ones go first.

AOx1 · Mar 20, 2009

Unfortunately, I have seen some organizations do something veeery shady...and get rid of those who cost the most (those with many years of seniority). This is a really bad move. If we don't have those nurses with tons of wisdom and experience, who will mentor new nurses?

RNperdiem, RN · Mar 20, 2009

In nursing, there is a fair amount of employee turnover compared to other professions. When spots go vacant, they stay unfilled.

MAISY, RN-ER, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2009

We are experiencing the beginning of lay offs and we are union. Slow areas have been the focus. Unlike the previous poster where the seniority in the hospital ranking affects lay offs all over the hospital, it is done departmentally in my area. Let's face it there are very few people that can float between floors. Specialties like ER or ICU require a different type of nursing that cannot be easily replicated in everyone!

However in that particular department, those with less seniority were axed-while we have brand spanking new grads in orientation. Hard to believe huh?

M

caliotter3 · Mar 20, 2009

We are experiencing the beginning of lay offs and we are union. Slow areas have been the focus. Unlike the previous poster where the seniority in the hospital ranking affects lay offs all over the hospital, it is done departmentally in my area. Let's face it there are very few people that can float between floors. Specialties like ER or ICU require a different type of nursing that cannot be easily replicated in everyone!
However in that particular department, those with less seniority were axed-while we have brand spanking new grads in orientation. Hard to believe huh?
M

Not hard to believe at all. The facility that was doing layoffs that I worked at had brand new employees in place a few weeks after the layoffs. So much for their reason for the layoffs.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Mar 21, 2009

I work for a union hospital and they lay off by seniority. What I have seen happen, however, is that they may add pressure to the senior employees to retire out or take a package, but now, with no money available, I don't believe that a package will be created in this case.

I have not seen this be a departmental issue. They will close the services that do not bring in enough revenue, but then, absorb those nurses into the main hospital, then, according to whatever numbers they gave to lay off, went by seniority. Another thing I have seen is the increase in grievances, because management will also use this opportunity to scrutinize time and attendance records, and increase the disciplinary actions. It is harder to fire union members, but if management is diligent enough, they can usually terminate a person within a year by doing the proper steps. Proper steps in my place of work is to review the attendance for patterns (ie, calling in before or after the weekend-especially if you are already off to try and bridge time together), calling off on paydays or day after, calling off on holidays or adding sick days to extend vacation are some prime examples.

They will begin with an informal meeting, then elevate to a write up, then, require documentation for each absence, to warning, suspension, recommendation for termination and finally, if the person does not quit, to meet downtown for the oath meeting, where the arbitrator makes the final decision (which is usually termination).

If they are able to get rid of people based on time and attendance, they may be able to preserve some of the better employees. If not, then, in the event of a layoff, it will be seniority. Also, unions are known to backfield people to their previous positions. For example, if a person received a promotion from head nurse to nursing supervisor and it is decided that they intend to lay off some supervisors, some can bump back to head nurse. Those that choose not to are then terminated. This cross bumping can become a hot mess, especially in a corporation like mine, where we have at least 8 other hospitals. Some have been bumped to places that are totally inconvienant to travel to, or to departments they have not chosen to. Their feeling is a nurse is a nurse and can be trained. Sucks, I know.