Employment and Labor Relations Presentation

HCS/545 Health Law and Ethics

Employment and Labor Relations Presentation

Employment Scenarios

As a team, review the assigned employment scenario. Prepare a 12- to 15-minute formal proposal for the hospital executive committee in which you address the following items. Prepare a 1-page abstract of your proposal to hand out to the committee for review during your informal presentation. Include detailed speaker notes.

· Background Information

· Describe the situation

· Identify and explain the law that applies to the situation.

· Part I – Problem Resolution

· Explain how you would apply the law to handle this situation.

· Part II – Prospective Risk Management

· Identify and describe strategies you could adopt to limit legal risk in this area in the future.

· Be prepared to address any questions the committee may have.

Scenario A

One of the patient care aides has complained to her manager that the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital has been following her around, making lewd comments, and trying to grab her. The manager is intimidated by the Medical Officer and ignores the complaint. The aide complains again and her manager demotes her to the night shift even though she has seniority over others in the area.

The patient care aide goes to the EEOC and files a complaint of sexual harassment and retaliation. Three of her coworkers speak out on her behalf during the EEOC investigation process. When the manager finds out that they have spoken against the medical officer, she terminates the employees. One of the three coworkers also complained of harassment by the Medical Officer but had not filed an EEOC complaint.

The hospital EEO officer comes to you as the executive administrator and asks you what to do.

Scenario B

One of the full-time nurses, Sammie, has been staying after her shift and “working off the clock”. She wants to help, but keeps complaining to her coworkers about all the free time she is donating to the hospital. After several months of this, she comes to her manager and complains about working “free overtime”. She says she has been keeping track of her extra hours and that she has put in 200 extra hours over the last 6 months.

Another employee, Marissa, has been working mandatory overtime 7 days a week. She has been properly paid for her extra time, but is complaining of “burnout” from all the shifts. The manager ignores her complaints because she needs to keep staffing levels up. A few weeks later, the employee comes in and quits, right as the department census is going up.

The manager comes to you as the executive administrator to determine what to do.

Scenario C

Three employees apply for the job of assistant manager within the department. They are all well qualified for the position. The first, John, is 50 years old and has over 20 years experience, but he is not up-to-date with modern technology. The second applicant is Jan, who is 20 years old and fresh out of college. She only has 1 year of experience, but has a master’s degree in business. The third applicant is Maria, who is 40 years old and has 10 years experience in the department. She has a good technology and business background.

The manager hires John because they golf together outside of work and are friends. Jan feels that she deserves the job and files a gender discrimination complaint with the EEOC. Maria, who is Hispanic, feels that she deserves the job and files national origin and gender discrimination complaint with the EEOC.

In-house legal counsel tells you, the executive administrator, about the EEOC complaints. What do you do?

Scenario D

Several employees have been handing out union pamphlets in the parking lot of the hospital. Employees are talking about whether to join the union or not. Some of the managers have joined together and fired employees who were interested in the union to keep the union out. In spite of the fired employees, the NLRB oversees a vote and the union is voted in.

Union and management start negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. They are having a hard time reaching an agreement, and hospital union employees are ready to go out on strike. The strike is scheduled to start tomorrow at 8 a.m.

The managers come to you, the executive administrator, to find out what to do.