Nine of the 18 nurses fired by Washington Hospital Center after they failed to show up for work during severe blizzard conditions in February are still fighting to get their jobs back, report local newspapers after a Monday conference call with some of the embattled nurses.
"We were hopeful in making a resolution that would settle both sides on a forward trajectory to handle future crisis...with clarity," said Stephen Frum, the chief shop stewart for Nurses United, which has filed grievances for the nine nurses, alongside a class-action grievance covering more than a dozen others who were given lesser disciplines for failing to show up for work during the blizzard.
There were 1,550 reported absences for scheduled shifts at the hospital during the snowy weekend of Feb. 5-7. Of those, there were 18 known terminations--with Washington Hospital Center being the only local hospital to issue any disciplinary action for the weather-related absences at all. WHC has since reinstated nine of those nurses, finding they had dismissed them in error, Frum said. Of the nine not reinstated, five nurses have found other jobs, he adds.
Although the hospital says it sent "numerous communications" to employees in anticipation of the storms that "set forth clear expectations to ensure uninterrupted patient care," termination is not mentioned as a consequence of failing to get to work in the hospital's weather-emergency policy. The policy states that "unscheduled absences and late arrivals occurring during a declared weather emergency are not counted when addressing attendance issues, nor are authorized early departures."
Nonetheless, just before noon Feb. 5, the hospital issued a memo to staff that said if employees refused to report to work as scheduled, they could be terminated, Frum said.
In a statement Monday, the hospital said that it was reviewing "employee actions" during the snowstorms and that more reinstatements were possible.
To learn more:
- read this article in the Washington Post
- check out this piece in the Washington City Paper