RNs file suit against Tenet for understaffing
Registered nurses represented by United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) filed a lawsuit against Tenet Healthcare claiming that Tenet has engaged in systematic understaffing of RNs throughout Southern California and failed to pay them for legally protected work breaks.
Sonia Moseley, executive vice president of UNAC/UHCP, says Tenet Healthcare has RN staffing shortages throughout Southern California. As a result, she says, many RNs are forced to work through their breaks with-out getting paid.
"The plaintiffs believe it’s wrong for Tenet Healthcare to steal from frontline nurses and harm patient care," Moseley says.
In the lawsuit filed in Superior Court of the state of California, Los Angeles County, the nurses allege that Tenet Healthcare is violating California’s Unfair Competition Law and California Labor Code’s wage and hours regulations. The nurses are seeking class-action status for their wage and hour claims on behalf of all Tenet Healthcare RNs in Southern California. In an unusual request of the court, the RNs are asking for injunctive relief that would, if granted, force Tenet Healthcare to provide adequate nursing staff for RNs to take lunches and breaks. The RNs believe the lawsuit will force Tenet Healthcare to operate its hospitals in accordance with California law and will help protect patients. The RNs are also seeking back wages and damages for a class of potentially up to 7,000 Tenet Health-care RNs who may have not been paid for work at 36 Southern California hospitals.
Under the California Unfair Competition Law, the nurses are requesting that Tenet Healthcare disgorge its profits from this practice if it is found to be illegal. Based in Santa Barbara, Tenet Healthcare Corp. is a nationwide provider of health care services, which owns or operates 116 acute-care hospitals. Twenty-eight percent of Tenet Healthcare’s acute-care hospitals are in Southern California.
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