Nurses Respond to NMMC’s Citation

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - The Department of Labor issued a citation to Northern Maine Medical Center for regulatory violations, we first brought you this story last Friday. These violations included misclassifying nurses as subcontractors, failing to pay nurses overtime, failing to pay nurses in a timely manner, and requiring nurses to sign contracts that exempted NMMC from Maine’s labor laws. The hospital has reached a settlement with the DOL.

Back in January of 2024, nurses at Northern Maine Medical Center joined the Maine State Nurses Association otherwise known as the MSNA. Months later nurses filed an unfair labor charge against the hospital for drawing out the negotiation process for contracts. They also filed a second unfair labor charge, connected to the termination of Tiffany Daigle, which led to nurses picketing outside the hospital back in October of 2024.

Brad Martinez, a Registered Nurse at NMMC says, “In March there were 4 employees that were per diem employees for the hospital and prior to that they entered into internal contracts. 2 of those 4 employees shortly after we elected the union were terminated. The hospital misclassified those nurses as well as a variety of other violations totaling 77 complete Maine state labor violations.”

Nurses say after the department’s decision there is still work to be done. They are now in the process of negotiating with the hospital. Martinez, “We want those nurses to be made whole that were wrongfully terminated or misclassified. primarily meaning that should they be reinstated at their seniority level that they were prior, and that the hospital provides legal help to help them with the tax misclassifications and ramifications that occurred. This investigation revealed a lot about how they were operating. So, there are very strict expectations that they need to follow and if they don’t there’ll be a heavy financial burden for not following those rules.”

NMMC released this statement in regard to the department’s decision. “On October 16, 2024, Northern Maine Medical Center received a letter from the Maine Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Standards regarding pay practices while utilizing an RN Flexible Solutions Program for four RNs to assist with staffing shortages. While admitting no wrongdoing, NMMC entered into this agreement with the State to resolve the issue and preserve hospital financial resources rather than continue costly litigation. NMMC agreed to additional monies to be paid to three RNs, pay a penalty of $8,750 to the State and provide training to the Human Resources staff as well as allow the State to review pay practices for a two year period.”

The NMMC Statement went on to say they will continue to comply with all state and federal labor laws. The settlement also includes the possibility of 84,050 dollars in additional penalties, retraining of NMMC management on Maine labor laws and the termination of NMMC’s RN Flexibility Solutions program.

Nurses Respond to NMMC’s Citation

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