Nurse Fired, Did Not Pursue Grievance: Cannot Sue Employer.

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Nurse Fired, Did Not Pursue Grievance: Cannot Sue Employer.

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

When there is a collective bargaining agreement between the employer and the employee’s labor union, disputes over employment issues must be resolved according to the process outlined in the collective bargaining agreement.

Regardless of how compelling the employee’s case may be, a civil courtroom is not an appropriate forum in which to seek a legal remedy for an issue covered by collective bargaining. COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO June 15, 2018

A nurse with thirty years seniority at the hospital was terminated after an incident in which her failure to log on to the computer and complete her documentation before going to lunch resulted in another nurse throwing out a kidney as medical waste that had just been harvested for transplantation.

The nurse filed a grievance, which was denied. Then she or her lawyer failed to follow through with a demand for a hearing before an arbitrator to appeal the denial of her grievance, as was her right under the nurses’ collective bargaining agreement with the hospital. Instead, she filed a lawsuit in the local state court of common pleas alleging wrongful termination.

The Court of Appeals of Ohio dismissed the nurse’s case. Without delving into questions of who was right and who was wrong, the Court ruled that arbitration under the collective bargaining agreement was the appropriate path forward while a civil lawsuit was inappropriate. Lemay v. Med. Ctr., 2018 WL 3013874 (Ohio App., June 15, 2018).