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Scheduling guidelines and mandatory moves by seniority update - January 12, 2021

In 2019, Peds and PICU nurses rightfully identified that their manager was not following the contract in making mandatory schedule changes. Specifically, more senior nurses were being moved, rather than in reverse order of seniority.  

We raised the issue and learned that in 2018, the Labor Management Task Force had reviewed the Scheduling Guidelines and they were approved. Those guidelines do not follow seniority, although it is a factor, in making mandatory schedule moves.  

Other problems surfaced such as “priority days” which were non contractual holidays that were being treated differently for scheduling and vacation / PTO requests. For example, Mother’s Day was more difficult to take off than the day prior.  

We reviewed the current scheduling guidelines in Labor Management Task Force in 2020, and made some adjustments, although we were unable to make any changes to reflect the contract language that required moves to be made in reverse order of seniority due to the 2018 Task Force review and approval of those guidelines.

If you have questions, please contact your ONA Labor Representative, Joe West at west@oregonrn.org, or officers Allison Jackson (labor and delivery), Kathy Keane (Card-A) or Jessica Carrier (ED).

RQI Training Time Demand to Bargain

We met in October and November 2019, and finalized the framework of an agreement in late 2020. A joint announcement regarding the program was made. The final hurdle was how to gather direct evaluation and feedback from the nurses that use the online modules and the simulations. Management’s Healthstream Survey questions do not address the questions we want to ask. Management has told us that the program has been validated and is successful, so any survey that we issue will be about operationalizing it and not whether it actually works as an educational tool. We agreed to revisit this in March 2021, with the introduction of RQI 2020 and the changes that brings (quarterly testing, among other changes. We will send updates when we have more information. If you want more information, contact Joe West, ONA staff at west@oregonrn.org, or Kathy Keane, Adwoa Lynn, Jason Sangster or Susan King.

Update on CVOR Staffing Plan and Grievance: OHA mediation requested after second impasse reached.

On September 17, 2019 the HWSC again reviewed the proposed staffing plans and was unable to reach agreement and declared impasse.

Contract Update: Education Leave and Fund Reopener

Demand to Bargain over RQI / Training Time

We met in October and November 2019 and have been exchanging proposals. Click here for ONA's Nov. 27 proposal. We are close to a resolution, but have reached a hurdle with administration over how to gather direct evaluation and feedback from the nurses that use the online modules. Management’s Healthstream Survey questions do not address the questions we want to ask.  We will be discussing this again in Labor Management Task Force on Feb. 5 and will send updates when we have more information.

Flu Policy Enforcement Announcement

Providence has notified ONA that it will enforce the flu policy more vigorously beginning in 2019. For updates on the enforcement process, please read the Nov. 27, 2019 newsletter.

Peds and PICU

Peds and PICU nurses meet with ONA and management regarding mandatory scheduling moves on August 11. Lack of clarity remains regarding how management is applying the contract language when mandatory moves are made, we are continuing to work on this issue and will have more updates coming soon.

Social Media a Growing Issue for Employees and Employers

Resource Nurse Information Center

To read a clear guide of the process for calculating resource seniority, please read this document which was created in 2010 after the resource nurses voted to be included in the contract along with FTE nurses. We think this will answer your questions

Attendance Policy

  • The attendance policy has been an ongoing concern for nurses and administration. For a summary from past newsletters, please click here
  • We reached a compromise in our 2011 negotiations which made the policy less rigid. To see that change, please refer to Art. VII of your contract.”
  • However, even though we reached a compromise, any corrective action issued under the policy must still have "proper cause.” If you have received a corrective action under this policy that you do not believe is fair, please contact your grievance committee representative, steward, officer, or labor representative

Clinical Ladder Negotiations

Clinical Ladder Tentative Agreement Ratified!

On May 22, 2015, the nurses at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center (PSVMC) voted unanimously to ratify the Clinical Ladder letter of agreement between ONA and PSVMC, as well as the bargaining unit bylaws amendment.

Members of the negotiating team are from the Clinical Ladder Board: Merridee Dobbeck, Chair, Eric Sabbe, Jenna Nelson and Kathy Keane, and APRN officers: Glenda Peters, Chair, Maryann Dutton, and Sally LaJoie.

Grievance filed for Unauthorized Timecard/Kronos Adjustments
to Hours Worked by Nurses

Update – January 15, 2015 The federal court has issued preliminary approval of the settlement reached. Class Action settlements are a lengthy procedure with multiple appearances before the court. The grievance was settled in the same process as the Class Action so our grievance is now part of that process. The claims administrator will be mailing notice to all class/grievance members in the next 60 days. If the settlement is approved then payments will be made in the summer of 2015.

Click here for background information and past updates regarding this grievance

Maternal Child Division

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Reorganization finalized July 2014.

For additional information, contact the NICU Stewards, Angie Little and Sharyl Allender, or a NICU workgroup member, or read past joint NICU Workgroup updates here.

Maternal Child Reorganization

The 2013 Maternal Child Reorganization is now complete, but the workgroup reconvenes to review issues periodically.

You can find the final memorandum of understanding, with details of the process, in the documents section at the bottom of this page.

ONA/Providence St. Vincent Post Partum and Labor and Delivery Negotiations 

Emergency Department Updates

Update: January 15. The Emergency Department nurses were notified March 11, 2014 that their department will be reorganized due primarily to needs to change staff on certain days of week to match the patient census. We formed a joint ONA – PSVMC workgroup and have now largely concluded this process except to revisit the Skeleton Schedule Guidelines and how schedules are changed for other nurses if a nurse leaves the unit. The nurses in the unit voted to adopt an exception to seniority for the nurses that lost their shift in the reorganization. To learn more about the seniority change, read the MOU which will be finalized and posted soon.

To read past Joint Workgroup Updates, click here

State investigation. In 2013, the Oregon Health Authority undertook an investigation following a complaint filed that the Medical Center’s staffing changes violate Oregon’s Nurse Staffing Law. On August 26 it announced that it had identified one or more violations of the Oregon Administrative Rules.

Staffing Concerns Abound – what can you do?

Document it! If you have concerns about your unit’s staffing, please fill out a SRDF form and help us document the problem. We are compiling and presenting this data and continue to push to improve your work conditions and those of your patients. For more information about how to document with an SRDF, please contact your ONA Stewards or fill it out here.

Track your Missed Breaks and Lunches. If the budget cannot sustain staffing for safe patient care, it is likely that it cannot sustain staff nurses’ ability to take breaks and lunches. We are getting repeated complaints about missed breaks and lunches. Please track these missed breaks and lunches and submit them to your ONA Stewards, officers, or labor representatives. It is illegal to fail to provide these rest periods, and it also violates our contract. If the documentation shows that nurses are not getting their rest periods, we can file a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries as well as file grievances. Please help us by stepping forward and documenting this problem!

Critical Care Division
  • Stewards needed in Critical Care. We currently have one steward in the ICU, but we need more staff nurses as Stewards in these units. Our goal is to have one nurse on each unit and shift. Please contact Molly O’Donnell, Sally LaJoie or any ONA officer if you would like more information. Your participation makes a difference!
  • During 2013 contract negotiations, critical care nurses mobilized to sign petitions objecting to the medical center's proposal to require floating on all extra shifts. We presented these petitions to management in negotiations in 2014. We are pleased to report that the unity of these nurses helped us prevent the changes the Medical Center proposed, and the option to float will remain within the control of the nurse signing up for an extra shift. Thank you for your activities to protect your working conditions!

Health Insurance Updates

Other Updates

Providence Officially Announced Flu Season Dec. 29. We were able to negotiate some improvements to the original masking policy. For more information, check out our September-December newsletters below.

Past Negotiations Archives

Versus Badges

Due to technical problems, the use of these badges has been discontinued. We have kept this as a standing agenda item on the joint Labor Management Task Force Agenda. As of yet, there are no announced plans to reintroduced these badges.

Lunsford and Weatherford Grievances over terminations were Arbitrated February 26-27, 2015. Final briefs were submitted April 13 and we expect a decision in 30 days. For more background information, read the newsletter below.

Low Census Issues in Maternal Child Division. We’ve heard of multiple problems with the low census process in Maternal Child. If you have experienced problems contact Sally LaJoie.

Working Spousal Surcharge Grievance. The grievance filed last summer over the Working Spousal Surcharge on behalf of staff that submitted evidence they were exempt but were still being charged is currently at Step 3 of the process.

Review your paystubs and make certain the surcharge is not being withheld. The surcharge is abbreviated on your paystub as “SP SC.” Providence has withheld the surcharge incorrectly for nurses that opted out of the surcharge during 2014 open enrollment – if this has happened to you call the HR Service Center immediately. If you have had a change in circumstances and it no longer applies, you must notify HR within 30 days to end the withholding.

  • Emergency Department updates

    • Vacation / PTO Grievance Updates. A grievance was filed on February 13, 2013 after nurses learned that their vacation/PTO allocations for 2013 had been reduced from 14 per day to 9 per day. In addition, the education/conference day was combined in the aggregate per day. Multiple nurses signed this grievance to protest this change. The first grievance meeting was held on March 14.  In that meeting, we met and discussed the situation and how it could be resolved. There were many factors that we discussed, such as "block” vacation requests, nurses that are currently "occupying” vacation/PTO slots that have changed shifts or are no longer employed, and how the vacation/PTO reductions were determined by the Blue Jay consultants. We met repeatedly over the following months to try and work out a solution. For the next 6 month window, we have again landed on an allocation that was developed by your managers without any staff nurse input or ascertainable criteria or methodology. Your manager(s) acknowledge they have not used a clear process and want to start using the Partnership Council to make this allocation. We are waiting for some base numbers from administration regarding how many nurses there are in the unit, the total amount of time off accrued, and how this new allocation will allow them to access their earned time off. A preliminary review shows that the allocation for the next 6 months would be 27 per week, which averages out to 4 available Vacation/PTO/Education slots per day. For more information, please contact Tom Graham, Sonda Martin or Anna Vernon. To read the grievance, click here.

  • EPIC Super Users Grievance Updates

  • Labor and Delivery Nurses Unite with 100+ Signatures on Petition Demanding Changes (February 7, 2012 Newsletter)
  • Washington State Nurses Association Arbitration decision awarding nurses pay for their missed breaks - posted April 11, 2012 

Archived Documents

 

 
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