Judge Finds Chino Valley Medical Center Guilty of Egregious Misconduct Against RNs
October 2011
Chino Valley Medical Center engaged in “egregious widespread misconduct” against Chino Valley RNs for organizing a union, an Administrative Law Judge found in his decision announced yesterday. The testimony, strength and commitment of Chino Valley RNs won this decision.
The judge ordered CVMC, owned by Prime Healthcare, Inc., to “cease and desist” from its unfair labor practices and to reinstate Ronald Magsino with full back pay and benefits.
The judge’s findings of misconduct and “disregard of employees’ fundamental rights” included CVMC’s threats, interrogation and retaliatory discipline against RNs. He ordered the hospital to cease its stricter enforcement of rules and rescind any resulting discipline that was unlawfully issued to dozens of Chino Valley RNs.
Because of the egregious nature of the violations, the judge also ordered corporate management to publicly read his orders aloud to employees and post the orders in a public place.
CVMC has the option to appeal the decision, possibly delaying the order’s implementation, but we fully expect the results of any appeal would be to reaffirm the judge’s orders. This is an important victory in our fight for our rights and improved patient care.
This decision follows by less than a month the California State Attorney General's denial of Prime Healthcare's bid to purchase, through its non-profit foundation, Victor Valley Community Hospital, after UNAC/UHCP and others testified against Prime's treatment of nurses and patients. The Attorney General blocked the sale as "not in the public interest."