US nurses union wins legal action against forced vaccinations

Nurses at Virginia Mason Medical Center won't have to choose between getting flu shots or getting fired, a labor arbitrator has ruled.

Eduardo Escamilla, an arbitrator brought into the bitter dispute between nurses and the center, ruled this week that Virginia Mason violated its union contract with its nurses by imposing mandatory flu vaccinations last September without negotiating the issue.

Escamilla upheld a grievance by the Washington State Nurses Association, which represents 636 nurses at the medical center, and directed Virginia Mason not to implement the policy.

The policy had been implemented last fall because of a shortage of flu vaccine.

Last fall, hospital administrators told employees that requiring flu shots was necessary to improve on a 55 percent influenza-immunization rate among staff members and to protect vulnerable patients.

Administrators said the immunizations would become a "fitness for duty" requirement, though the shots would be free. Exemptions would be granted for religious or medical reasons, with free antiviral medications supplied instead.

But the union argued that the requirement violated both the contract and individual rights of workers.

"We believe health-care matters are decisions to be made by individuals for themselves," Anne Tan Piazza, the union's director of government relations and communications, said yesterday. "We don't believe threatening people with their jobs is the best way to achieve compliance."

Piazza said the union has and will continue to encourage nurses to receive flu shots. She said the union also hopes to work with the medical center to increase the immunization rate.

A Virginia Mason administrator said the center still is committed to achieving a 100 percent immunization rate and is exploring ways to do that.

"We know that staff immunizations save lives," said Charleen Tachibana, vice president and chief nursing officer.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for years has recommended that health-care workers receive flu vaccinations. Nationwide, though, less than 40 percent of health-care workers are immunized, the agency says.

Nurses Win