Filing a grievance -- Nursing School not following their own policy + threats

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bradmullins007

New Member
I dabble a little bit in labor and grievances being that I'm a Union Steward. This has nothing to do with me but I'm trying to help my fiancé. She has been attending nursing school for the last couple of years and has about 9-10 months left before becoming an RN. She is always in a rush and we have a very busy life so she's not that great with being on time, but all things considered she's only been late for class maybe twice. Once being when she got a speeding ticket and the other I'm not so sure why. The nursing program has their own handbook and grievance procedure which specifically states that a student is only tardy if they're more than 10 minutes late on clinical days or 15 minutes on classroom days. The problem we've found out is that they don't follow that policy. Several students have missed 4-5 days which is more than the handbook allows and yet they've not had any problems what so ever. Interestingly my fiancé has not missed a single day the whole time she's been in nursing school.
Things have been brewing but they finally came to a head and she got super upset recently when one of her instructors pulled her out of class (while in another instructors class) in a very bold fashion and threatened her in the most ridiculous manner saying that she had spoken with the nursing director about her tardiness (even though their handbook states one must be 10 minutes late to be tardy so she wasn't tardy to begin with) and that from this point forward whether she was 1 minute late or 5 minutes late she would be sent home (for the 2nd time) and receive a "U" for that day. Even worse which makes the whole story borderline ridiculous the instructor told her that this whole ordeal ONLY applied to her no one else in the program. The handbook states 3 "U's" and you're dismissed from the program. It seems like they have no problem following that part of their handbook. I eventually read parts of their handbook looking for a grievance policy and behold spelled out for me they indeed have one. So I asked her if she'd like to go that route and suggested she do so but she's been reluctant due to this event and it has her worried that they will retaliate. I have to agree that it somewhat came across my mind that the probability for such seems quite high. I know it's illegal for them to do so but if the instructors are bold enough to say the stuff they already have I feel it's a justifiable worry. I wrote the grievance up based on her account of the situation but she hasn't been able to catch up with the campus director to give it to them yet. I guess my question is: Is this the best course of action or due to the severity of their discriminatory threats are there more that we should do? If there's anything else you guys think I should know don't hesitate.

P.S: Look over the typos and randomness of my points. I typed this on my iPhone and generally I'm hideous at using the device for anything more than a text.
 
Since there is a grievance procedure, then she should start by going that route, see what happens & go from there.
 
Please note: It is illegal to retaliate for exercising a right protected by law. It is not illegal to retaliate for complaining that internal policies were not followed unless the policy itself is based in law.
 
I would have imagined that retaliation would justify discrimination. Law is just too vague -- it seems that it's always a word game and there's gray everywhere.
There's other policy they don't follow there as well. Breaks are supposed to be every hour for 10 minutes but according to which instructor you're under some students go to clinicals and stay there 8-9 hours with no breaks at all.
Thanks for the replies.
 
And again, discrimination is ONLY illegal if it is based in a characteristic protected by law. She cannot be singled out BECAUSE she is black, white, hispanic, asian, female, pregnant, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, disabled, etc. She CAN be singled out because she follows the Red Sox instead of the Yankees, went to Georgetown instead of American, came in late yesterday, came in early today, went to lunch with the boss yesterday, didn't go to lunch with the boss yesterday, plays golf instead of tennis, etc.
 
Thanks cbg. So in layman's terms the school can pick and choose who they make follow their policy and if they decide another policy is more appropriate for another student they can completely void their policy and institute a new one for a single student. Makes sense that's pretty much what we see in big business all the time.
 
Yep, more or less. They can treat different employees differently as long as they aren't treated differently (discriminated against) due to a reason prohibited by law. (religion, gender, race......)

If the handbook isn't being followed (though handbooks rarely rise to the level of a binding employment contract & can generally be changed at any time) & since there is a grievance procedure & if she wants to pursue this, she should follow the grievance procedure. That would be her option or let it go.
 
Of course, she could avoid the whole problem by simply being on time. A ten minute grace period does mean that you're not tardy unless you come in more than ten minutes late; you're still tardy if you come in one minute late.
 
Agree, in the future, that is what she should strive for - just be on time. Problem solved.
 
None of the responders that posted in this thread so far are lawyers though we do have lawyer responders on the forum.

Why do you ask?
 
I have 30+ years HR experience, which means I have more actual employment law experience than someone who may have a law degree but practices in criminal law or tax law or real estate law.

What's your point?
 
Most of the regular responders are not lawyers but can answer questions because they have great knowledge in a certain area(s) of law due to the type of work they do/did, reading, research, references.......
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Share this page

Get a free case review from a lawyer
Back
Top