TENET Healthcare - Violating Labor Laws w/ NURSES!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · May 28, 2002

Quote:

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, says nurses in Tenet hospitals must routinely work through their meal breaks without being paid for that time. And, it alleges, they do not get the 10-minute paid rest breaks required by law for every four hours worked.....

....Nurses are seeking compensation for lost breaks going back four years, Cantore said. He figures each nurse stands to recover about $100 a day. With 7,000 nurses and four years of back pay, that works out to $420 million. "We of course would entertain settlement offers that are somewhat less than that," Cantore said.

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Hope the nurses submitted requests for payment for "lack of breaktime"...that is one way of documenting "lack of staff, no break given". Another is to keep a little spiral bound note book documenting no break with date and time, also staffing if remembered. Wage laws are usually very specific and nurses have won payments before over these issues.

Exhausted RN's will find a breaking point and leave a facility over chronic stress. Chronic fatigue leads to an increased error rate.

http://www.ocregister.com/local/tenet00405cci.shtml

colleenmayo · Dec 12, 2003

Once again Tenet has showed its self serving colors.by laying off employees on dec 12 they are requried to wait one week before applying for unemployment compensation...once that week is thru they will wait 2-3 weeks for a check,taking them through the holiday season without a job. It's bad enought they lie to the press but to hurt innocent workers just to divide and conquer thats too much.Rich Freeman (aka EL DIABLO)has had this plan in the works since november.to rich freeman I hope TENET returns the favor for you just when you least expect it:(

stressednurse · Dec 12, 2003

I have received back pay from two places in my medical career, the first was from an ambulance service with a contract that had a stipend to be paid to paramedics and EMTs doing transports for that contracted entity (VA Hospitals, Ogrodnik Ambulance Service)) That service is out of business now. The second time was from a hospital that is now out of business also and it was for breaks that were not possible due to staffing issues and patient care needed. (Central Medical Pavillion). Both were in Allegheny County Pennsylvania during the 1990's. Neither were nor ever became union, we just fought as a group for what we deserved. Maybe those rulings could be helpful in this dispute.