UPDATE: Vassar Brothers Responds to Healthcare Worker Vigil

UPDATE—Thursday, April 7, 2016, 11 a.m.: John Nelson, spokesman for Vassar Brothers Medical Center, issued the following statement regarding the vigil held Wednesday, April 6, 2016:

Vassar Brothers Medical Center has seen an increase in the number of patients seeking our excellent healthcare services. To meet those needs, we are adding positions and actively recruiting for additional staff. Anyone interested in learning more and applying should visit www.healthquest.org/careers.

We are attempting to negotiate with the unions a modified policy on unscheduled absence. Our proposed policy is fair, makes a reasonable allowance for unscheduled absences, and would not adversely affect most employees.

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Original story:

NYSNA registered nurses and 1199SEIU technologists, technicians and healthcare workers at Vassar Brothers Medical Center held a vigil Wednesday evening.

Organizers said they held the rally to call attention to staffing shortfalls and a new employer policy that would allow management, to penalize employees for taking sick days.

Nurses and hospital employees say in virtually every area of the hospital they are working without enough staff, their ranks stretched thin. Protests of Assignment, where nurses formally object to working conditions, often citing staffing shortfalls, have more than doubled at the hospital, they said.

Organizers said that VBMC management has created a new “Dependability Policy” that punishes them when they are ill and need a sick day off. This new policy does not address the underlying problem, lack of staff to meet the increased census, but rather penalizes employees for getting sick when they are exhausted.

“Inadequate staffing throughout the hospital, working to exhaustion—these conditions show that management has little regard for its employees and the community they serve,” said Rose Decker, RN.

1199SEIU member Sheila Ennist, a Patient Care Tech in the pediatric unit said, “I love my job and my patients and I want the hospital to do well, but this new policy isn’t good for anyone. It’s not good for the staff and it certainly isn’t good for our patients when we are stressed.”

“We go above and beyond every day to give our patients the care they deserve. Instead of recognizing our contribution, VBMC chooses to be punitive,” said Cyndi Sexton, RN.

Ron Breau, a Vasculaer Cath Lab tech and 1199SEIU member for decades said, “I’m concerned the hospital is setting up its own emergency situation. We are working until exhaustion, until we become ill, and now this policy would penalize us for getting sick. And the penalties are so extreme as to ignore the disciplinary procedures that are in our contract. This has to stop for the health of the staff and the entire community.”