A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of three Dignity Health nurses claiming they were required to perform off-the-clock work and were subject to impermissible rounding of time entered on timecard software and an employee monitoring system hospital staff use to record hours worked.
Those filing the lawsuit hail from Sacramento. Two of the three plaintiffs are no longer employed with the Dignity Health system. The suit does not appear to be directly connected with Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, according to Bryan Lazarski, who represents the nurses.
Lazarski added, however, it is possible employees from other Dignity Health medical centers, including Sierra Nevada Memorial, could join the suit at a later date.
When reached for comment, officials at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital referred questions to Dignity’s communications department.
William Hodges, director of external communications for Dignity Health Sacramento region, said in a statement that Dignity is looking at the complaint and, as a matter of practice, doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital has found itself in the news recently, first when last month, a number of employees represented by the Teamster Local 150 Union gathered at Condon Park in Grass Valley to raise awareness, they said, for their claim that they haven’t been compensated as well as their peers working for Dignity Health hospitals in the Sacramento area.
Those nurses said they were disappointed with their union representation and were interested in seeking an alternate representative.
Meanwhile, Dignity Health is in the process of merging with Catholic Health Initiatives, a Colorado nonprofit corporation. A public meeting scheduled for 3 p.m., Sept. 17 at Foothill Event Center is set to give Nevada County residents the opportunity to provide input and ask questions of the merger, which would result in the new health care system becoming the largest nonprofit hospital company by revenue.