Rally Held At Temple Hospital After Fired Employee Not Allowed To Return To Work

By Dan Wing

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A couple hundred health care workers at Temple University Hospital and their supporters held a rally on North Broad Street Sunday afternoon. The point was to protest the administration’s decision to not immediately reinstate a fired employee after an arbitrator ruled that she should be allowed to return to work.

Henry Nicolas is the president of the local chapter of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Workers, and he says their message is pretty simple:

“We want Temple to obey the letter of the contract.”

That contract says that an arbitrator’s ruling is final. The arbitrator in this matter was called in to rule on an employee who had been fired after she was accused of sexually harassing a co-worker through the distribution of sexually explicit materials. Nicolas says this is where the problem comes in:

“The arbitrator ruled that the employee should be returned to work, and Temple has decided that they are going to go to court, and not reinstate her,” he said.

In a statement, Temple University Hospital says the administration respects the arbitration process, but is appealing because of violations to Pennsylvania’s policy against sexual harassment in the workplace.