Lecture: Employment Law Focus
The topic of employment law focuses on a number of important articles of legislation. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 focuses on discrimination in the workplace. A later legislative act, the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act protects persons with disabilities. The Age Discrimination Employment Act (ADEA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provide protection from most other discriminatory practices.
The FMLA provides protection to employees and families. It provides extended medical leave to employees in the event of a recognized physical or emotional life event, allowing them to return to work at the same position and salary. Application of the legislation becomes convoluted when organizations use agency staffing to cover gaps in the workforce. Many healthcare professionals are contracted on a regular basis to cover workforce shortages. The potential benefit afforded to an organization is the utilization of agency staffing for allied health professionals. The employer relationship with a temporary agency-allied healthcare professional is not same as it is with a full-time employee, and matters pertaining to the FMLA are addressed through the employment agency. However, there have been a series of court challenges regarding the FMLA and employment agency-allied healthcare professionals.
Employment at will provides discretion for both employee and employer in dealing with voluntary or involuntary employment separation. While the legislation provides certain liberties for employees and employers, it does not allow the abandonment of statutory employee protections pertaining to race, national origin, gender, age, religion, pregnancy, family status, veteran status, disability, ethnic makeup, and sexual orientation. It must be noted that individual state legislation varies.
Due process protections and protected property interest are afforded to government employees or specific contractual employees. Under these protections, employment may not be deprived in the absence of due process. A property right in continued employment exists when federal, state, or local laws, policies, contracts, or agreements provide that the employee will only be disciplined or dismissed for a just and proper cause.
Articles of Legislation
Review the tabs to know more about some important articles of legislation.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The Age Discrimination Employment Act (ADEA)
Assignment:
Nurse Shuffle worked as a registered nurse in a state-run organization for fifteen years. In 1970, the state made a decision to close and transition all state-run hospitals to the private sector. The state required a number of nurses to remain employed with the new facility for a period of eight years. Nurse Shuffle was one of the state employees to continue employment under the new ownership. The facility Nurse Shuffle worked at was transitioned to a long-term acute care facility (LTAC). Nurse Shuffle remained as a staff nurse in the LTAC, which was a small facility with thirty-five inpatient beds.
In the years that followed, Nurse Shuffle became depressed over matters in her personal life. Given the mounting life pressures, she contrived ways to obtain controlled prescription medication from the medication drawers of patients. This practice became more urgent for Nurse Shuffle, who contrived more blatant, desperate measures to obtain controlled prescription medication. Eventually, she was caught, and she also confessed to having an addiction problem. Since Nurse Shuffle was a state employee, the administration decided to not terminate her but offered her an option of treatment at an addiction center. The facility would satisfy the due process protection afforded to government employees.
In the next ninety days, the LTAC facility closed down. Nurse Shuffle was released from rehabilitation treatment services but was without employment. She decided a change was needed and sought employment with a healthcare professional agency that provided nurses with healthcare facilities throughout the country. Nurse Shuffle accepted a one-year temporary position at a large teaching hospital as a nurse working the night shift in a surgical stepdown unit. Unfortunately, the strain of acclimating to a new setting and the night shift was too much to cope with, and she found opportunities to remove controlled prescription medication from the facility for personal use. Again, the behavior was discovered, Nurse Shuffle was prosecuted, and, as a consequence, her license was revoked.
An investigation revealed that there was no information on the file for the previous controlled prescription medication offense at the LTAC. Since the LTAC facility was in its waning days, some top human resource personnel left for other opportunities and the department was understaffed. The remaining personnel were lower-level clerks, who were unaware of the policy or procedure, and hence, no information was reported to the state for licensure purposes. The LTAC believed that Nurse Shuffle was entitled to due process since she was a government employee, and hence it her offered addiction treatment to resolve the matter. The employment agency conducted the standard state nursing license verification, and Nurse Shuffle failed to offer any information regarding the substance theft matter. The teaching facility where Nurse Shuffle accepted the assignment relied on the agency’s verification process because Nurse Shuffle was not considered the facility’s employee.
Interpret and explain the basis of due process protection and why it might or might not apply to Nurse Shuffle’s situation. Express your opinion regarding whether Nurse Shuffle should have been terminated or afforded the option of an addiction treatment program.
Explain the applicability of the FMLA to Nurse Shuffle’s situation.
Discuss the responsibility of the teaching hospital’s requirement to verify the licensure and professional credentials of Nurse Shuffle. Compare the verification burden for an agency employee versus a regular employee.
To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Submission Details
Submit this topic as a 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document. Use APA standards for citations and references.
Cite a minimum of three outside peer-reviewed sources to support your assertions and save it as SU_HCM3046_W1_Project_LastName_FirstName. Submit the document to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.
Cite any sources using correct APA format on a separate page.
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