Public Employee Press

Hospital worker freed from unfair weekend tour

Institutional Aide Richard Simmons returned to the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. first tour at Coney Island Hospital after the union went to arbitration and won his grievance against an unfair transfer to tour three.

"This was about protecting members' seniority and telling management they cannot do as they please and ignore the contract," said DC 37 Hospitals Division Council Rep Joel Vera.

For 17 years, Simmons cleaned hospital rooms and buffed floors with a clean record of no disciplinary actions. But a new manager changed his work hours and forced the veteran Local 420 member to work weekends.

"I worked that tour for 11 years with no problems. I always got good evaluations and no complaints, but this manager was new and wanted to push people around," Simmons said. "The change disrupted my life and upset my family."

Soon after Simmons went to the union and filed a grievance, the manager began writing him up on frivolous charges, claiming he needed more supervision and he was not in his assigned work area.

The grievance went to step 3 and finally to arbitration. To Simmons's credit, the radiology supervisor, a head nurse, and several pediatric emergency doctors provided letters of commendation.

In December, an impartial arbitrator ruled that the reassignment was "arbitrary and capricious" and ordered HHC toput Simmons back on first tour with weekends off; he also received $800 in annual differential pay.

Cutbacks at the hospital have him "doing more work than before," but he is glad to have his night shift again.

"Management thinks in this economy people are not going to stand up for themselves, but they're wrong," Simmons said. "They lied on me. I fought for justice for myself, knowing my co-workers will be affected. The union stood up for all of us."

"This case sets a precedent. Usually, management has the right to reassign workers," Vera said. "But this case shows their decisions have to be within reason. They cannot arbitrarily reassign workers without taking into account seniority and overall performance."