Whistleblower: Nurse’s Rights Not Limited By Union Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
June 2018
Many states have laws that allow employees to sue over wrongful termination or other adverse employment action in violation of public policy by their employers. Employers are prohibited from taking action against an employee who refuses to participate in or reports unlawful conduct by the employer. The laws intend to encourage nurses, medical staff members and other healthcare workers to notify government agencies of actual or suspected unsafe patient care and conditions. Reporting is to be encouraged in order to protect patients and to assist accreditation and licensing agencies to do their jobs.
The Federal courts have jurisdiction over the interpretation of collective bar-gaining agreements in the private sector. The nurse’s right under the collective bargaining agreement to reinstatement and back pay was upheld by an arbitrator. She has additional rights under the state’s whistleblower law to be upheld by a state court.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CALIFORNIA May 11, 2018A nurse who had worked in the emer-ency department of a private-sector hospital for twenty-three years began filing formal written complaints with her supervisors and hospital management that state requirements for specific minimum mandatory nurse/patient staffing ratios were being ignored. The nurse also sent copies of her complaints to the State Department of Health Services, the Board of Registered Nursing, the Board of Vocational Nursing and the state Occupational Safety and Health Ad-ministration.
At the same time the nurse was having performance issues with her supervisor. Required paperwork was not being filed on time. Other nurses suspected drug use and reported the nurse. She was escorted off the premises and required to take a drug screen. The nurse also submitted a note from her physician stating that she needed light duty for a while due to physical health problems.
After the nurse was terminated a union grievance filed on her behalf resulted in an arbitrator’s decision that she was entitled to be reinstated in her job with back pay.
Several months after the arbitrator’s award the nurse sued her employer in state court for violation of her rights as a whistleblower. She claimed her supervisor’s disciplinary actions and her termination were retaliation for her complaints about illegal staffing practices. The US District Court for the Central District of California ruled the nurse had whistleblower’s rights under state law that are to be enforced in state court, in addition to the reinstatement with back pay already ordered by the labor arbitrator. The nurse’s whistleblower rights under state law are separate and distinct from her rights under the union collective bargaining agreement. The hospital had no right to remove her lawsuit to Federal court. The Court returned the case to Superior Court in California.
Flores v. Health, 2018 WL 2189469 (C.D. Cal., May 11, 2018).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-nurse-discharge.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-nurse-court-case.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-nurse.htm