Resurrection Hospital Cited for Employee Surveillance

[Omaha Steve]

Resurrection Hospital Cited for Employee Surveillance

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently issued a complaint against Westlake Hospital for placing information about an employee's union activity in her personnel file.

When Shirley Brown, a housekeeper at Westlake Hospital, requested a copy of her personnel file she was shocked to discover that it contained a profile of her that appeared in an AFSCME mailing to religious leaders.

"It really disturbed me. It made me feel like I was being spied on and I know it would scare a lot of my coworkers," stated Brown, a well-known leader in the hospital organizing campaign.

In recent years, Resurrection Health Care hospitals have settled eighteen Unfair Labor Practice charges regarding interference in employees' rights to organize. By declining to settle this charge before the complaint was issued, Resurrection must defend its actions at an NLRB hearing set for December 13.

Resurrection sold Westlake Hospital two months ago to for-profit Vanguard Health Systems but the incident occurred prior to the sale.

Religious and Community Leaders Honored in Campaign to Save Local Hospitals

Long-time activist Sister Carol Cook and Woodrow Taylor, a leader in the South Austin Coalition, were presented awards by the Oak Park/Austin Health Alliance for their roles in the campaign to protect West Suburban and Westlake hospitals.

In their initial offer to the buy the two hospitals from Resurrection Health Care, for-profit Vanguard Health Systems made minimal commitment to keep the hospitals open. A dynamic community-based campaign eventually compelled the state board reviewing the sale to require Vanguard to commit to keeping both hospitals open and continue current services for at least three years, as well as investing $15 million to improve the hospitals.

"I believe we sent a very clear message to Vanguard and to Resurrection that when it comes to protecting our community hospitals, people will take action," said Ethel Barbee, a nurse at West Suburban Hospital. "We appreciate the important role that Sister Carol and Woodrow Taylor played in that effort."

Resurrection Housekeepers Struggle for Respect

Exhausted by punishing workloads and frustrated by rude treatment from managers, housekeeping staff in Resurrection Medical Center's Environmental Services Department decided to take action. They worked together to develop and circulate a petition that requested very basic improvements: respectful treatment, increased staffing and steps to avoid workplace injuries.

As the campaign gained momentum employees began to note changes. Managers are now addressing workers with more respect and employees' evaluations are more positive.

"Our job is to make sure the hospital is as clean as possible, but it's hard to do your job when we're completely worn out, humiliated or injured," stated Primo Cirillo who has worked as an EVS employee for six years. "I know some people were afraid at first but when we worked together things changed."

[justanaverageguy]

1. help me on this one...

Her union put out a profile and mailed it presumably to multiple people thereby making it public information. Common sense would tell me that the profile contained information about her that was hardly confidential or sensitive in nature. A copy of of this profile ended up in her file and she feels like she was spied on? I don't see how you can make information about yourself public and then claim to feel spied upon because you aren't particularly happy about who saw that information. That would be like me complaining that I felt spied upon because someone (my employer, if I had one) read my Facebook page. This makes no sense to me. Help me understand this one.

[Omaha Steve]

2. About Facebook: NLRB Backs Worker Fired After Facebook Posts Ripping Boss

This case is not even union related. Video at link. Even public info about union participation can not be placed in your file. You also can't watch an employee going to a union meeting in a public place etc. It is illegal period.


http://abcnews.go.com/Business/facebook-firing-labor-board-takes-stand/story?id=12099395

Labor Board Says Firing Employee Over Facebook Comments May Be Unfair, Company's Internet Policy Too Broad

By SUSANNA KIM
Nov. 10, 2010

For the first time ever, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint that an employer engaged in unfair labor practices for firing an employee who made derogatory posts about her supervisor on Facebook.

The labor board issued the complaint against American Medical Response of Connecticut last week for firing medical technician Dawnmarie Souza after she criticized her supervisor online. The board also said that the firm had an overly broad employee Internet policy.

Images of Souza's Facebook page, provided by a lawyer for the company, show remarks including, "looks like I'm getting some time off. love how the company allows a 17 to become a supervisor," using the company's terminology for a psychiatric patient. Another post says, the supervisor is "being a d***" and a "scum***."

Calls to Souza were not immediately returned.