National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_DEC 12/22/10 6:20 PM Page 6 NEWS BRIEFS nurses who become ill or injured on the job. In order to obtain workers' compensation benefits, nurses must prove that their illness or injury is work related. However, if Domenico had been a peace officer or firefighter, instead of an RN, his TB diagnosis would have made him automatically eligible for workers' compensation benefits. That is because California is one of many states that have laws in place that grant public safety employees "presumptive eligibility" for workers' compensation, meaning that if the employee sustains certain injuries or becomes infected with certain diseases like TB, or Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the injury or illness is presumed to be job related and makes him or her automatically eligible for workers' comp benefits. However, by and large, nurses across the nation do not qualify for presumptive eligibility, even though, by the nature of their work, they are at constant risk of being exposed to illness and injury. The California Nurses Association has sponsored presumptive eligibility legislation, including last year's AB 1994 introduced by Assembly member Nancy Skinner, which would have provided that back or neck injuries, MRSA, H1N1, and other bloodborne infectious diseases are presumed to be job related if contracted by an RN. However, the bill failed passage based on its projected cost. The idea behind presumptive eligibility is that certain diseases and injuries are intuitively job related. For example, lung disease is generally considered an occupational disease for firefighters. Presumptive eligibility laws vary among states, and while they primarily apply to public safety employees, they do apply to other types of professions, such as coal miners for respiratory disease and lifeguards for skin cancer. The omission of nurses from such laws makes it difficult for nurses like Domenico to secure workers' compensation if their employers deny that they are liable. "Short of getting an expensive lawyer, I knew there was no way for me to pursue a workers' compensation case, because all the hospital had to do is say that you can catch [TB] in the community," said Domenico. "Without presumptive eligibility, you are left with no recourse." Domenico sometimes contemplates the potential long-term effects of his condition. Unable to take prophylactic treatment upon 6 N AT I O N A L N U R S E his diagnosis, he thinks about not only the physical effects, but also about having to use his own paid time off in case he gets sick. "I'm on my own," said Domenico. "If something manifests in the future, no one is accountable but me." Legislative efforts to extend presumptive eligibility to nurses face strong opposition from hospitals and the business community at large, which argue that if such provisions are granted to nurses, workers in other high-risk jobs will want them too, further straining the workers' compensation system. But proponents contend that it is unfair to deny presumptive eligibility for nurses who are at high risk of injury and illness. Others see this as an issue of gender equity, stating that it is unfair for states to grant presumptive eligibility to the male-dominated public safety Many Wrongs Still CAN THEY DO THAT? Retaking Our Fundamental Rights In The Workplace. By Lewis Maltby; Penguin Group W ould you be shocked to learn that a boss can fire a worker because of the bumper sticker she displayed on her car? In his aptly titled book, Lewis Maltby, the president and founder of the National Workrights Institute and the former head of the American Civil Liberty Union's national workplace rights office, recounts the story of Lynne Gobbell, who was fired for putting a "Kerry for President" sticker on her bumper. In his book, Maltby also explores the lack of employees' Constitutional rights at work through countless other infuriating stories. What about Gobbell's First Amendment rights? The sad answer is that Gobbell didn't have any right to free speech at work. The United States Constitution limits only the actions of the government. The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech." It says nothing about what private actors, including corporations, may or may not do. Therefore, most Americans leave their freedom of speech behind when they step into the workplace every day. It doesn't matter what the speech was about, whether it occurred outside of working hours, or even if the speech was in the employee's home on her personal computer. Workers can be fired if their bosses disW W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G agree with the content of their blogs or for talking about work on Facebook. You might find it difficult to believe that an employer would bother scouring the Internet to find out what workers have written, but many corporations, including hospitals, employ public relations representatives who routinely perform searches on Facebook. Any negative comments about the hospital, whether posted by an employee or a member of the public who visited the hospital, may provide the basis for discipline against an employee of the hospital. Workers in this country can be fired for DECEMBER 2010

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