PEP, April 2009: Union wins benefit for assaulted Bellevue member

Being assaulted by psychiatric patients is one of the hazards that members of Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 frequently have to confront. Not only do they have to work with patients who can be violent and aggressive, but when they suffer injuries on the job and seek to be justly compensated they often have to cope with an unsympathetic hospital administration.

That was the case with Carlene Emmanuel, a Patient Care Technician at the Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan. While performing her duties at Bellevue on June 26, 2008, she was attacked by a male patient who punched her several times in the stomach and chest and left her with a serious neck injury.

Emmanuel was treated by a neurologist and required physical therapy three times a week. A doctor verified that she was unable to work at all from Dec. 27, 2008, to Jan. 27, 2009.

The Local 420 member reached out to her union and they promptly applied for benefits for her pursuant to Article V, Section 10 (Line of Duty Injury due to Assault) of the Citywide Contract, which requires that members be paid for up to 18 months when they are assaulted on the job and cannot work.

Emmanuel’s benefits were granted on a month-to-month basis on July 25, but on Oct. 8 she received a letter from HHC that rescinded her payments — far short of the 18 months provided in the contract. DC 37 Hospital Division Council Rep Felicita Creque filed a grievance on behalf of Emmanuel against the Health and Hospitals Corp.

In December 2008, the case reached Step 2 of the grievance process, where union representatives made it clear that they would fight for Emmanuel all the way to arbitration, management decided to seek an agreement with the union. On Feb. 18, HHC, Carlene Emmanuel and the union agreed that she would have her benefits restored, retroactive to Sept. 30, 2008, and would be paid for the time she had missed.

“Our members in the hospitals have to fight for their rights,” said Creque. “Ms. Emmanuel fought from beginning to end and she won.”