Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/197763
NewsBriefs_DEC 12/22/10 6:20 PM Page 7 profession, but not to the female-dominated nursing profession. "Just like police officers and firefighters, nurses put their lives on the line everyday, and any protection we can get, we need," said Andrea Goldstein, a registered nurse from Massachusetts. "You don't know if the patient you are treating has HIV, or some other disease that you could be exposed to. You just do your job." In 2005, Goldstein secured workers' compensation benefits for a back injury she sustained while on the job. However, it was not easy, and she had to fight to prove that her injury was work related. Once in the system, she claims the medical care she was given ultimately worsened her condition. Goldstein decided to close her workers' compensation case so she could seek treatment from her own doctors. According to Goldstein, while presumptive eligibility for nurses may not have changed the outcome of her case, she believes that such provisions could benefit nurses across the country. "[Presumptive eligibility] laws should be nationwide," said Goldstein. "A nurse is a nurse whether she is in Massachusetts, California, or any other state. A nurse is still a nurse." —Kelly Green Makes No Rights such minor infractions because most are employed "at will," which means that a worker can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. There are a few narrow exceptions to this rule. An employer cannot fire a worker because of her race, gender, religion, age, or because the worker has a disability. Some states also have laws that protect employees from being fired because of their sexual orientation. These exceptions don't mean that an employer must have a good reason to fire a worker if she is a woman or disabled. It merely means that the employer can't fire the worker solely because of her gender or disability. Even if a worker is fired for an illegal reason, however, this is usually very difficult to prove and more often than not the discrimination will go unpunished. But surely workers in this country retain some basic human rights like privacy, right? Sadly, they do not. The Constitution is the legal source of most of the privacy rights that American citizens take for granted and because employers' actions are not limited by the Constitution, most American workers have a very little limited right to privacy from their employer. Indeed, Maltby's book catalogs the myriad ways employers have found to invade the most intimate details of their employees' lives. He writes about an employer who believes that drinking alcohol is a sin and fires any employee who engages in social drinking, even though such drinking occurs off site and outside of work hours. Maltby writes about employees who discover video DECEMBER 2010 cameras in their workplace bathrooms and locker rooms and have no legal recourse to remove them. In one especially egregious case, a boss was watching women in bathroom stalls through a video camera placed there. Only two states, California and Rhode Island, have laws banning video cameras in workplace bathrooms and locker rooms. If you work in any other state, you may not be able to prevent your employer from filming during what you had thought were the most private moments of your day. Even more alarming, because such images are now digital, they can be easily distributed on email or posted on the Internet. The rising cost of healthcare has provided further incentives for employers to invade workers' privacy in an effort to rid their payrolls of employees who are likely to become sick and require expensive medical care in the future. Many employers require a physical prior to securing employment. The information gleaned from such physicals can be used to screen out employees who may end up requiring expensive medical care in the future. Workers who are overweight, smoke, or have diabetes are especially vulnerable. Many employers subject their workers to drug tests. Such testing may make sense in some contexts but, according to Maltby, up to 60 percent of positive tests are wrong. Accordingly, many workers are fired for false positive drug tests. Even more shocking, the New York Times recently reported that employers are increasingly looking for prescription medicines when they drug test employees. Workers W 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 who are injured on the job and then take prescription medications to manage the pain risk being fired by such employers. So what can you do to protect yourself? Maltby suggests that concerned readers take action to change the laws or join a union. Workers who belong to unions are protected against most of the workplaces abuses described in Maltby's book. Union members can only be fired for "just cause," which means that the employer must have a valid reason related to the employee's work performance to fire him. In most situations, this prevents employers from firing workers because of their political beliefs or off-duty conduct. In addition, the employer is legally required to negotiate with the union about its surveillance and drug testing policies, as well as anything else that constitutes the "terms and conditions of employment." While most nurses reading this magazine are unlikely to ever face the most egregious employer actions described in Maltby's book because they do belong to a union, his book is well worth reading. While the book does not explicitly address the issue, every story in it serves to underscore how relying upon the law to protect workers is not an option because the laws in this country are written to protect the interests of employers, not workers. The only weapon workers have is the ability to organize and engage in collective action. As union density continues to decrease, this book is an important reminder of why unions are more important than ever. —Linda Shipley N AT I O N A L N U R S E 7