This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA.
In a unanimous ruling on August 15th, the California Supreme Court found that public healthcare workers are not protected by the same labor laws as employees of private healthcare systems. The case (Stone vs Alameda Health System) goes back to 2011 and involved a nurse and a medical assistant at Highland Hospital who said workers were being forced to miss their legally-mandated meal and rest breaks.
Rather than dispute their claim of missed breaks, the hospital lawyers found a work-around by arguing that public hospitals were exempt from these basic worker protections.
Ryan McGinley-Stempel, a lawyer for Alameda Health System, celebrated the ruling. He stated that if county hospitals were penalized for violating labor laws, it would, “jeopardize their ability to carry out their public missions.”
Since when does providing public services give hospitals a free pass to violate labor laws? How are critical front-line healthcare workers supposed to care for patients without breaks for rest and meals?
Fortunately, our current union contract supercedes this ruling and protects our rights to breaks – for now. But this just shows us how crazy it is that our basic rights as workers are not formalized into labor law. Instead they’re up for negotiation every time we fight for a new contract.
Click here to read the article printed in the 08-28-24 Healthcare Newsletter
