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One of the issues we highlighted in our censure communication was the HHS failing to provide paid leave for exams and that this was at arbitration. We are unhappy to report that arbitrator Levinson ruled in favour of HHS in our dispute about paid leave for exams.

The language in our contract says that a nurse will receive a leave "without loss of earnings" to write an exam. For as long as we can remember our hospital provided a nurse with their shift off with pay. But HHS decided to change that practice and challenge our contract language by giving the nurse the shift off and then scheduling them for another shift.  They argued that the nurse did receive a leave 'without loss of earnings' and that our contract did not say we must receive a 'paid leave of absence'.

Most hospitals we surveyed still give nurses a paid leave of absence, so we are very disappointed in this decision and hope that ONA will be able to deal with this at our next round of negotiations.