Five days a week for 10 years, Agostino Scalercio left his house before 6 a.m., drove to a depot to pick up a truck, and worked a 10-hour shift delivering packages in San Diego. He first worked for Roadway Package System, a national delivery company whose founders included former United Parcel Service (UPS) managers, and continued driving trucks when (FDX) bought RPS in 1998. FedEx Ground assigned Scalercio a service area. The company, he says, had strict standards about delivery times, the drivers’ grooming, truck maintenance, and deadlines for handing in paperwork, and deducted money from his pay to cover the cost of his uniform, truck washings, and the scanner used to log shipments. FedEx Ground didn’t pay overtime or contribute to Scalercio’s Social Security benefits. That’s because since acquiring RPS and introducing its ground service, the FedEx unit has treated drivers as independent contractors, not employees. “The saying around the building was, ‘It’s their sandbox. We only get to play in it,’ ” says Scalercio, who no longer drives for FedEx Ground but is one of hundreds of current and former drivers suing the FedEx subsidiary, seeking back pay for overtime worked and for paycheck deductions. (The parent company is not a defendant.)Scalercio earned about $90,000 a year from FedEx, he says, but... |
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Saturday, October 18, 2014
FedEx Ground Says Its Drivers Aren't Employees. The Courts Will Decide
Nurses who fear Ebola have few options: complaining, sick days or walking out
Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from www.theguardian.com
Cyndi Krahne is a nurse. Since the first Ebola patient died in the US, she has not worn her work shoes in the car. When she gets home, she follows a careful ritual in her garage: taking off her scrubs, stepping gingerly out of her shoes. She carefully wraps them in plastic and puts them in an out-of-the-way place where they won’t touch anything. The shoes and the scrubs never make it into the house. In a week when Dallas is considering declaring itself an Ebola disaster zone, nurses are nervous. Krahne has five children. “I am concerned. I don’t want them exposed,” she says. She’s seen infectious diseases before in the 10 years she has worked at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center Santa Rosa, California. She’s been careful – but never this diligent. Fear is the reason for her conscientiousness. Krahne says she doesn’t feel safe at work. She is still without training or protective equipment. Krahne’s confidence is wavering that her workplace is as dedicated to her safety and well-being as she is. “We haven’t received any education, nor do we have proper personal protective equipment to care for patients with Ebola,” she says.... |
Pulmonary fibrosis asbestos link found
Many cases of a common lung disease that were assumed to be of no known cause are in fact the result of exposure to asbestos, UK scientists believe. Researchers from Imperial College London found a correlation between death rates in England and Wales from the known asbestos-related conditions asbestosis and mesothelioma and from “idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis” (IPF). Many cases of a common lung disease that were assumed to be of no known cause are in fact the result of exposure to asbestos, scientists believe. Researchers from Imperial College London found a correlation between death rates in England and Wales from the known asbestos-related conditions asbestosis and mesothelioma and from “idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis” (IPF). In findings presented to the European Respiratory Society (ERS) international congress in Munich, Germany, they warn that at present people with a history of asbestos exposure may be missing out on appropriate care, as they are not currently able to access new treatments for IPF. According to the researchers, asbestosis is the name given to the lung fibrosis developed by people with a known history of exposure to asbestos; IPF is an identical condition, just without the asbestos association being made. Their analysis of UK Office of National Statistics data revealed national and regional correlations between the three diseases. This supports the theory that a proportion of IPF cases are due to... |
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Friday, October 17, 2014
Path to Federalization: Obama May Name ‘Czar’ to Oversee Ebola Response
Federalization of the Ebola crisis is emerging already. Today's post is shared from nyimes.com DALLAS — President Obama raised the possibility on Thursday that he might appoint an “Ebola czar” to manage the government’s response to the deadly virus as anxiety grew over the air travel of an infected nurse. Schools closed in two states, hospitals and airlines kept employees home from work, and Americans debated how much they should worry about a disease that has captured national attention but has so far infected only three people here. A federal official said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had broadened its search for contacts of Amber Joy Vinson, the second nurse infected with Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital here, after interviewing family members who gave a different version of events from Ms. Vinson’s. The nurse had said she had a slight fever before boarding a flight from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday. But family members said she had appeared remote and unwell during her trip to Ohio over the weekend. The C.D.C. said it was now tracking down passengers on Frontier Airlines Flight 1142 from Dallas to Cleveland, which Ms. Vinson took last Friday. It had already been tracing passengers on her Monday flight.Ms. Vinson’s case raised flags for investigators because the day after she arrived home in Dallas, she reported substantial symptoms. Health experts say those would be unlikely to develop in just one day. Seven people in Ohio were voluntarily quarantined because they had contact with Ms. Vinson... |
Read more about the "The Path to Federalization"
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Ebola Now an Issue in Nurses’ Contract Bargaining
Nurses’ calls for better hospital preparation around Ebola have landed on the bargaining table. California’s powerful nurses’ union has been bargaining with Kaiser Permanente for months over a new contract, and is now adding to its list of demands better training, protection, and insurance coverage for nurses who may treat patients infected with Ebola.
“Kaiser felt all they had to do was pull up some CDC flyers and put them on the lunchroom tables or up in the bathrooms,” she says. Nurses want hands-on, interactive training with demonstrations and the opportunity to ask questions, says McClure, who is a member of the California Nurses Association and part of the bargaining team negotiating with Kaiser Permanente Northern California. They also want better protective gear, and better coverage if a nurse gets sick while caring for patients. “We are asking in our contract negotiations for an extra insurance policy,” she says. “We’d like to have an extra supplemental coverage, specifically for Ebola, if we were to contract Ebola while we’re at work.” Nurses’ medical costs are covered by workers’ compensation... |
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Chain to Pay $38 Million Over Claims of Poor Care
One of the nation’s biggest nursing home chains, Extendicare, has agreed to pay $38 million to resolve federal claims that it inappropriately billed for physical therapy and provided such poor care to residents that it was effectively worthless, the Justice Department said on Friday. The settlement with Extendicare, which owns about 150 homes in 11 states, is the largest settlement in the department’s history involving a nursing home chain accused of providing substandard care to residents. Federal prosecutors said Extendicare’s executives did not hire enough trained nurses to care for the patients in 33 of its homes, leading to what they described as “pervasive” problems, including failing to prevent serious falls and head injuries and failing to prevent bed sores. The care was so inadequate, officials said, that some patients became malnourished and dehydrated and developed infections that led to unnecessary hospitalizations. The claims originated in a federal whistle-blower lawsuit filed in Ohio that accused the chain of poor quality of care. “These problems stemmed in large part from Extendicare’s business model — a model that was driven more by profit and less by the quality of care it provided,” Joyce R. Branda, an acting assistant attorney general, said Friday. Extendicare, a Canadian company whose United States headquarters is in Milwaukee, is the seventh-largest nursing home operator in the country, ranked by the... |
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Angry Parents Demand Answers As OC Schools Remain Closed For Asbestos Testing
Angry parents in Orange County are demanding answers as school closures Monday dragged into their second week due to asbestos testing. Parents say they’re frustrated by the lack of information Ocean View School District officials are providing about their students’ futures. Oak View Elementary students and parents in Huntington Beach marched in front of the district’s office Monday morning, hoping someone would explain when the children will return to class. “We brought our kids because they want their school back. They want their education back,” Oak View parent Olga Flores said. “What’s going to happen with the kids’ education? We have not got any answers at all. We come to meetings and they just stand up and walk away.” It’s been six days since administrators shut down the campus to test for a possible presence of asbestos. The approximately 750 Oak View students aren’t the only ones who have been away from school. Hope View and Lake view Elementary are also closed, leaving an additional 850 kids in limbo. Authorities say the campuses are old and asbestos is present in the fire-proofing materials in the roof. At Hope View, an asbestos fiber was found in a wipe test in one classroom. Asbestos was also detected in two other classrooms at Lake View Elementary, according to the district. The asbestos will be removed over the course of the next few months, officials say. ... |
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
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