CHICO, Calif., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ --
What: Workers Deplore Employer for Suspension of Employee Over Time Spent in Emergency Room When: Tuesday, August 10th at 11:00 a.m. Where: Enloe Medical Center Cafeteria, Chico
On Tuesday, August 10, a delegation of hospital food service workers will deliver a signed letter to Compass/Morrison management, the hospital’s food service subcontractor, in protest of the suspension of Michelle Parker, a food service worker at the hospital for two years. Parker was suspended after she spent time in the hospital’s emergency room when she was having heart attack symptoms including left chest and neck pains, faintness and difficulty standing. Parker’s coworkers will march with her to deplore the decision to suspend her made by Compass/Morrison Services (the subcontractor providing food service to Enloe Medical Center).
A full description of the situation leading to Parker’s suspension can be found in the attached letter to management.
“Michelle Parker has been a dedicated coworker of mine in food services for two years now,” said James McCarthy, a nutrition and food services worker. “This is a horrible way for a company to treat their workers. Over the past two years, Michelle has worked Saturday and Sundays, Christmas, New Years Day, July 4th, Labor Day and Thanksgiving for the hospital food service with no additional weekend or holiday pay. I think it’s appalling that the first time management gives her a weekend off, it is a disciplinary action taken against her for exhibiting heart attack symptoms and following her doctor’s orders.”
With over 95,000 members, SEIU 250 is the largest and fastest growing health care union in the Western U.S. We represent every type of health care worker, including nursing, professional, technical, paramedic and service classifications. Our mission is to achieve high quality health care for all.
Media Contact: Kathleen Miller, 510-773-7102 ### August 9, 2004 Neal Smith Labor Relations Manager, Compass/Morrison Via Email RE: Suspension of Michelle Parker Dear Mr. Smith, We are writing to bring a very serious issue to your attention for which we request your urgent response: This past Friday, Compass/Morrison Dietary employee and Local 250 member, Michelle Parker received a message on her home answering machine from her supervisor that she was being suspended for the next two days because she had too many “occurrences.” We are of the understanding that an “occurrence” is a term that the company uses to describe being absent from work for any reason including illness or injury. Ms. Parker was specifically told that the “occurrences” that put her over the limit was the day on July 29 that Ms. Parker believed herself to have been having a heart attack while on the job, and sought emergency care at the Enloe ER. Ms. Parker received treatment and extensive tests from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day, and was released. She has been receiving further tests and treatment throughout the following week. She went to the ER after continuing to work in the Dietary Department for about an hour while feeling so dizzy that she was holding on to counter tops to keep from falling, while experiencing pain in her left chest, arm and neck. Previous “occurrences” that have been entered in Ms. Parker’s file, which added up with this incident to put her over the “limit,” include the days she was unable to work in July of 2003 (more than 12 months ago) when she was seriously injured on the job: On July 24, 2003, Ms. Parker was collecting plates in the doctor’s lounge. While picking up a heavy ceramic pan, she felt something in her arm rip. She finished the remaining 1/2 hour of her shift, and went home to cry in pain. The next morning she went to see Enloe Medical Center’s own Physical Therapy Department, where the doctor told her she had torn the tendons from her left elbow. He gave her a note to take back to work saying she was not to use he left arm. Her arm in a sling, she went from the doctor’s office to the kitchen of Enloe Medical Center. Her supervisor, upon receiving the doctor’s letter that same day, pointed to the fact that her right arm remained in working order, and demanded that she come to work the next day and use it. She was given an “occurrence” for the day that her doctors’ appointment at to the hospital’s own physical therapy department kept her away from the job. She apparently did not receive another occurrences the next day for staying home and letting herself heal, because she didn’t stay home: She worked for days, going home at night to cry. (Though we are unclear as to she received subsequent “occurrances for going to physical therapy appointments). A second doctor subsequently wrote additional instructions, which here delivered to management, that she was to do no work that would force he to use the injured arm at all. Management didn’t honor that note either, and continued to assign her to duties that were impossible to perform with just one arm. This not only violates all notions of common decency, it also violates Compass / Morrison’s own stated policy that “occurrances” are wiped from an employee’s record after 12 months. By this letter, we request that Ms. Parker be immediately returned to work, that her suspension for Saturday and Sunday be reversed, that she receive back pay for the two days of inappropriate suspension, that all “occurrences” for days she was absent due to sickness or physical injury be expunged from her record and that all such other appropriate relief be granted to her. We further request an apology be issued to Ms. Parker, and that the company issue a written clarification to employees and local managers that absences for sickness or injury shall never again be grounds for disciplinary action. Sincerely, Dana Simon
SEIU 250
CONTACT: Kathleen Miller of SEIU, +1-510-773-7102
Web site: http://www.seiu250.org/
