Temple nurses say offer includes gag clause

[emoney]

Temple nurses say offer includes gag clause | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/31/2009

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), which represents 1,500 nurses at Temple, said it had filed a complaint yesterday with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board claiming the hospital was demanding that a gag clause limiting public criticism of Temple or its managers be included in the new contract.

According to the union, the proposal states: "The Association, its officers, agents, representatives and members shall not publicly criticize, ridicule or make any statement which disparages Temple, or any of its affiliates or any of their respective management officers or medical staff members." In the event of "defamation," the union would pay "damages" of $250,000.

Sandy Gomberg, the hospital's interim chief executive, said the union had "misrepresented" the intent of the "non-disparagement clause."

"What we won't tolerate is the union, not our employees, making derogatory and defamatory statements about the hospital, individuals who work here, or the patient care we provide," she said.

[chuckiezip]

if the quoted text is actually in the contract, then it sounds like the nurses ("members" of the union) are indeed gagged...

[emoney]

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According to a complaint PASNAP filed with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board Oct. 30, the proposed clause within TUH's contract offer states that no employee will "criticize, ridicule or make any statement which disparages Temple, or any of its affiliates or any of their respective managers or medical staff members."

The hospital brass maintains that the nurses should keep their grievances in-house. "The union is confusing the intent of the [clause's] language," says Sandy Gomberg, TUH's interim chief executive officer. "What it is, is a statement to the union itself, that the union or people representing the union can't say defamatory things about the hospital, or the people who work here, because that creates a defamation for the hospital. What it's not, it's not in any directed at any of our employees, it in no way stops any employee from speaking to whomever they want, whenever they want, about whatever they want." What's more, Gomberg continues, patient advocacy isn't the nurses' job: "It's the hospital's responsibility, working with its employees, to make sure that we are providing the best patient care possible, and with that, together we advocate for the patients. The union's job is to advocate for the employee ... in matters of bargaining. I think the union has confused these two points."