60 yr. old nurse fired after 30 years of service

What is the name of your state? PENNSYLVANIA

My mother, a 60 year old registered nurse was fired yesterday for questioning another nurse about the poor quality of care provided to a patient in the recovery room.

She was previously reprimanded for questioning the poor quality of care for another patient a month ago.

She is the only full-time nurse in her department - the rest are part-time and receive app. half her salary. The hospital is in terrible financial shape and is looking to replace nurses with seniority and higher salaries with newer, lower salaried part-time nurses.

She has worked there for 30 years and received numersous citations for her exceptional service.

She is also a vocal advocate and organizer for a new nurses union at the hospital - one which the admnistration is opposed to.

What grounds does she have for legal action against the hospital?
Age discrimination? Wrongful termination?

Thank you for response

joemcginnissjr said:

What is the name of your state? PENNSYLVANIA

My mother, a 60 year old registered nurse was fired yesterday for questioning another nurse about the poor quality of care provided to a patient in the recovery room.

She was previously reprimanded for questioning the poor quality of care for another patient a month ago.

She is the only full-time nurse in her department - the rest are part-time and receive app. half her salary. The hospital is in terrible financial shape and is looking to replace nurses with seniority and higher salaries with newer, lower salaried part-time nurses.

She has worked there for 30 years and received numersous citations for her exceptional service.

She is also a vocal advocate and organizer for a new nurses union at the hospital - one which the admnistration is opposed to.

What grounds does she have for legal action against the hospital?
Age discrimination? Wrongful termination?

Thank you for response

Click to expand...

My response:

She's got nothing. She was insubordinate.

Citations? Hell, management's attitude is, "What have you done for me today?" Management couldn't care less about her achievements or whether she was right. All they care about is that she's a "money drain".

IAAL

Your mother had already been reprimanded once for questioning patient care. I have no idea whether her concerns were valid or not but she'd already been put on notice not to do it again. There is nothing in your post to suggest her age has anything to do with this. That being the case, this is not a wrongful termination.

Based solely on the contents of your post, I wouldn't bother trying age discrimination. It's quite possible to be legally fired in spite of your age, just not because of it, and nothing in your post even remotely suggests that her age is a factor.

It is NOT illegal to replace full time, high salaried employees with lower salaried, part time employees unless there is a real reason to believe that their age was a factor. Again, nothing in your post suggests that her age is a factor.

It's just barely possible that she MIGHT be able to put a wrongful termination case together IF AND ONLY IF she can tie her termination to her advocacy of the union. However, since she does appear to have been insubordinate, it may be hard for her to make this case, unless she is able to point to other employees who made similar comments and were not fired.

Again, I am responding only to the facts in your post. It can do no harm for her to speak to a local attorney, particularly one with labor union experience, in case there are more relevant facts than your post suggests.