The Old Geezers Retirement and Healthcare Corp. owns and operates over 75 residential nursing homes in 27 states. It employs over 1000 employees nationwide and has revenues in excess of $10,000,000 annually. Its corporate headquarters are in Biloxi, Mississippi and the facility in question is located in Ohio and is referred to as “Heartland”, and employs approximately 100 people. The staff includes 4 Registered Nurses, 12 Practical Nurses and 53 Nurse Aides. The remainder of the employees are administrative and support staff. No employees at this facility are represented by a union.
The nurse aides have the most contact with the residents of Heartland—bathing, dressing, feeding, emptying bed pans, and so on. The nurses are responsible for making sure that the needs of the residents are fulfilled—checklng on the health status of the residents. Administering medications, communicating with physicians. Nurses also perform the duties of nurse aides when an insufficient number of nurse aides show up for work.
While night shift nurses have little to do with assigning aides' duties, the day shift nurses are responsible for teling the aides what residents they are responsible for. The nature of the aides' work makes them fairly interchangeable. Also, assignments are often done by following old patterns or letting the aides decide coverage among themselves. Nurses are responsible for trying to find replacement aides when an aide does not how up for work, but they have no authority to order an aide to come in. Nurses have no authority to authorize overtime. Disciplining and performance appraisals of the aides are conducted by the Director of Nursing, not a staff nurse (although nurses can make comments about an aide's performance in an employee counseling form). At night and on weekends. the staff nurses are the most senior personnel at the facility. The Director of Nursing (or an assistant) is on call and is normally contacted when nonroutine matters arise.
Barbara Young was hired in July to be the new administrator at Heartland. She was quite inexperi.enced, however and was overworked. In December Ms. Young switched the Hearttand's pharmacy from a local pharmacy (whose owner had dose ties with the community) to a chain pharmacy located 40 miles away. This drastically increased the paperwork duties of the nurses (although it is perhaps the case that this increase occurred because Heartland and the local pharmacy were not completing the forms requlred by state regulations). The community was offended by this action, and Heartland experienced a drop in new admissions (some of this community discontent was fueled by the nurses who leaved in the community and were quite vocal about their unhappyness with the change.)
The Director of Nursing position was vacant between December and February of the next year. The facility was understaffed, especiafly among nurse aides, and little was being done to hire new personnel. In January three staff nurses asked to meet with Young. They wished to discuss several actions by Young that the nurses thought were detrimental to the residents and affected the work of the nurses and aides. Young replied that, due to her busy schedule, they should set up an appointment for later in the week.
lnstead the three nurses traveled to corporate headquarters in Toledo the next day,, where they met with a vice president and with Bob Custer, HCR's director of human resources. In this meeting the three nurses expressed four primary problems:
1. There were insufficient aides employed at Heartland (and substandard wages and recruiting perpetuated this ongoing problem).
2. Little discipline was taken with regard to aides' absenteeism. which placed more burden on the aides who showed up for work.
3. The pharmacy switch.
4. Communications problems between Young and Heartland's nurses.
The nurses were told that an investigation of their complaints would be launched and that they would not be harassed for speaking out.
A week later Custer met with Heartland's department heads (Young was not present). The department heads liked Young, knew the nurses had complalned about Young, and assumed that Custer would fire her. The department heads supported Young in their meeting with Custer and also talked about the unprofessional behavior of the three nurses. Custer subsequently asked each person at the meeting for the names of the people he or she thought responsible for the tension at Heartland. Two of the three nurses appeared on every response; the third was on many. (Suggesting to Custer that perhaps the three nurses were simply disgruntled and were the real problem.)
Custer also met with Young. During their discussion Young remarked to Custer about the three nurses' lack of cooperation with management. Young also mentloned that some employees had, among other things, started a rumor about an affair between Custer and Young. A few days later Custer met with thefacility's aides. The complaints about Heartland were greatest among aides who worked the same shift as the three nurses. Custer took this as further evidence that the three nurses were the root of the problem.
During February the three nurses received a variety of disciplinary notices. The circumstances surrounding their disciplinary notices for missing an in-service (internet training session) were typical of the situations for which they were disciplined: Only six nurses attended but the three were the only absent nurses to receive warnings. Additionally, Heartland‘s policy is to give two weeks' notice before any mandatory inservice; in this instance only a few days' notice was given. As a second example, a state audit found many minor mistakes by all the nurses in their unit, but only the three were disciplined.
In March HR Director Custer met with Heartland's nurses to announce that
• The pay for aides would be increased to hire more aides.
• Young would not be fired.
• The pharmacy situation would not be changed back.
Custer perceived the demeanor and tone of the meeting to be resistance to change and an emphatic refusal to get on board and make Heartland a good facitity. Custer believed the three nurses were responsible for this attitude among the nurses and concluded that they should be fired. The demeanor of the meeting, Custer admitted, was conveyed to him by the three nurses crossing their arms and rolling their eyes as Custer talked. Custer therefore concluded that the three nurses were unwilling to change their mode of operation and attitude to improve the facility. Thus Custer decided they should leave. When they refused to resign, they were fired.
The three nurses subsequently filed and Unfair Labor Practice complaint against the Company alleging they were fired in violaiton of their rights under the Act.
3. Assuming these employees are protected by the Act, for each of these possible reasons for their termination, are these actions by the employees protected under sections 7 and 8, and why?
a. Going to Toledo and speaking out against their boss.
b. Poor work performance.
c. Being trouble-makers, having a poor attitude.
d. Body language to express opposition or disagreement
4. For each of the reasons for termination listed in question 3, above, do you find that the facts support a valid reason for termination even if the activity is protected? Remember to support your decision by explaining the facts and credibility factors you applied to the law.