Hello. I would like to explain my issue. I was hired on call, and was working on call and full time whenever full-time employees could not work. Overall, I worked 6 out of 12 months full time. In the last 4 months of 2011, I was working full time because I was replacing another full time nurse who was on maternity leave.
Since the beginning on January, no one has called me. I called the nurse who I trusted, and she told me my name was taken off the schedule and my name and phone number was whited out from employees phone number list.
I called DON and asked what I should expect (I did not tell her info I knew), and she told me I was on call. When I asked if I can use her as a reference, she said yes.
Later, another employee told me that they hired the sister of a full-time employee full time and that the sister of an owner was given on call position.
I look for another job now and understand that my job at that nursing home is over. However, did any of you ever see something like this done to your fellow coworker? Is what they did not me legal? Please comment.
I just got deja vu reading this. OP, on call is just that- on call. They call you if they need you to work and if you're on the schedule and they don't need you, you're the first one canceled. There is no guarantee that they will not hire a FT person and stop calling you nor do they have any obligation to you to NOT hire a FT person and to continue giving you hours.
The reason I asked again is that I wanted to know if most of you think what was done to me was not right. I know legally they were not obligated anything. But still, it hurts to be treated like this. It is one thing when they do not have hours, but another thing when they do not give ours to you, and give it to A NEWLY HIRED PERSON.
well to speak to your second question, last summer I was not able to work do to having MAJOR abdominal surgery, my surgery was at the same time that another coworker was out for surgery also, they hired another per deim person I had worked here for 1.5 years, even now, if he is available (he is a college student who lives out of state during school) he gets the hours not me. it is what it is. it is what you get for working on call.
I've seen something similar happen when the person who got the job did not have any "connection" as a reason to get the job. Employers get rid of employees, even good ones, all the time. You just have to move on. Unless you have a way to find out the real reasons behind the back door termination, there is really nothing you can gain by fretting over it.
If they hired a new permanent person, presumably they would have had this position posted and could argue that if you wanted full time hours, you would have applied to the permanent position. I do not know of anywhere that would give an "on-call" or per diem employee hours over a permanent employee, even a newly hired one. They don't have to pay you if you don't work, that's the down side of being per diem.
The person who they hired was the sister of a full-time employee.
In most companies, there is seniority rule. People who are on call would get promoted to part-time or full-time before they would bring a person from outside.
Perhaps in a union facility that is the rule but it's certainly not an across-the-board standard and a private company has no obligation to promote an on-call employee instead of hiring someone from the outside. In my facility, per diem status counts for nothing as far as seniority goes. I work with nurses who have been at the institution for 20 years but, because they were per diem until 2-3 years ago, seniority-wise they are lower than those who were hired as new grads 4 years ago. Permanent part-time employees at my institution have been told that they cannot increase their hours to full-time status while new grads have been hired. In this case, it comes down to money. They'd much rather hire a new grad at a lower rate than give more hours to the senior nurse whose salary is nearly twice that of a new grad.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
We don't have a union but we have polite management.....me.If we have a per diem who hasn't worked in 3 months, despite being called and asked to pick up hours, we send out a letter explaining that we will be taking them off the list. I post every position. Seniority has nothing to do with who gets the job.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Yes, I have seen this happen, many times, in professions other than nursing as well. Sorry it happened to you. The sooner you move past it, the sooner your life will continue on without them having the power to manipulate your emotions. Best of luck. To be honest, you sound like you felt pretty entitled based simply on your seniority. I do not know if that came across when you worked there or not. The best you can do at this point is evaluate yourself honestly and how you were when you worked there, whether you had any reason to be passed over for this promotion, whether they knew you were interested in going to a permanent position, whether your work ethic was good, if you were a good fit with the other employees, etc. Take what knowledge you glean from that self examination and move on. It could be simply because that person was the sister of another employee, it could be other reasons. Being let go stinks, but since the job was PRN it should sting less than if you were fired. Seniority is less important in today's job market than the social facts of being a good fit, well connected etc.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Threads merged.
Personally, I am a PRN/per-diem employee. I am fully cognizant that my employer has the ability to stop putting me on the schedule at any time and for any reason. I take this calculated risk because I enjoy the flexibility and minimal commitment that characterizes PRN/per diem employment.
In addition, most facilities have an auto-termination rule for PRN/per diem employees. If the PRN employee goes a certain length of time without working a single shift, then his/her employment is auto-terminated. This is a fairly effortless way for facilities to purge themselves of PRN employees that they want gone. If they stop calling you, your employment will auto-terminate after a specified amount of time.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
What law do you suppose would be broken in this situation? Was there any discussion at all about you being hired full-time if there was an opening? I'm not sure that replacing a full-time employee on leave means your status as on call has changed even if you worked the requisite number of hours per week. If that were the case I suppose some FT benefits would have to be prorated for the time you filled in for the nurse on leave of absence.
The person who they hired was the sister of a full-time employee.
In most companies, there is seniority rule. People who are on call would get promoted to part-time or full-time before they would bring a person from outside.
What company X does for seniority doesn't mean that your company will automatically follow suit. Actually many facilities rank per-diems at the bottom of the seniority pole regardless of length of time there.
And even in the facilities that like to fish from the per-diem pool for permanent staff, unless it was specifically spelled out as part of the terms of hiring, they are in no way obligated to hire any per-diem as a permanent employee.
It's clear by your responses that you're not getting the answer you want to hear, but that's because we can't give it to you. Why? It's not illegal to drop a per-diem since the terms of your employment was "as needed" by the employer...and they clearly don't need you anymore. Nor is it illegal to hire someone else--even one with less experience--for a full-time job to replace the need for using the per-diem.
Also, asking the same question repeatedly will not change the answers you will get. Something to keep in mind.
I will tell you something you seem to want to hear, though...and that is, could you sue? Sure, you can sue anyone for any reason.
Do you have a good chance at winning? IMO, not really--all that would come of this is wasted time, wasted money, a few new enemies, and a likely ruination of your chances of ever being rehired there. But if that's that route you want to pursue, you are free to pursue it. I'm sure there's a lawyer out there that would be willing to take this on knowing full well there's minimal chance of victory, because no matter the outcome, you'd still have to pay them for their legal services.
Personally, I'd cut my losses, call it a lesson learned, and move on. But I'm not you.
KelRN215, BSN, RN
1 Article; 7,349 Posts
I just got deja vu reading this. OP, on call is just that- on call. They call you if they need you to work and if you're on the schedule and they don't need you, you're the first one canceled. There is no guarantee that they will not hire a FT person and stop calling you nor do they have any obligation to you to NOT hire a FT person and to continue giving you hours.