A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

I will be getting a lawyer - mtmqemp

Posted: Aug 12, 2011

First I need to apologize to the MTStars and its posters for having submitted material for which I was temporarily banned. I should have, and did not, clearly apply their rules to my posts. I have been re-instated and I want to thank MTStars for allowing my return.

I am going to be seeking a lawyer and will be documenting as much information as I can. Hopefully it will be a two-fold case: The first addressing off-shore, and the second addressing our less-than-optimal pay and MedQuist's practices overall.

If I now understand the MTStars rules correctly, and please know that I hope I do, if you have any questions, you can click on this post and read it, then, I believe, you are able to email me versus or in addition to posting a response.

I am well aware that there are many of us, past employees and present employees who need to be represented fairly and I am attempting to find someone to do that for us.

I make no promises, and cannot be held responsible for anyone else's actions, but as I read these comments, I really and truly believe that in spite of today's economy, we deserve to live according to the vision of one national attorney organizational belief which is that:

"Workers will be paid at least a living wage in an environment free of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and capricious employment decisions; employers will fulfill their promises to provide retirement, health, and other benefits; workers' safety and livelihood will not be compromised for the sake of corporate profit and interests; and individuals will have effective legal representation to enforce their rights to a fair and just workplace, adequate remedies, and a right to trial by jury."

What say you?

Thank you again for the patience you have with my postings.

I say good luck - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Anything to be gained would go to AHDI anyway.

ALL THIEVES!

I understand your cynicism, truly.. - mtmqemp

[ In Reply To ..]
and one person, well, especially me being that one person, will most likely not succeed in doing anything at all! I have described below though my tentative plan if you are interested. I believe, in fact, you have already done some of this work a few years ago, am I correct? Perhaps if many of us can come forth, we can make a difference. Maybe even it won't result in us getting anything monetarily in a big way, but perhaps if we can make even one baby step towards the overall goal, it could be a difference to someone, somewhere. I have the following plan and I need help with it.

"I am doing some research into finding an attorney who does corporate law/business law. (Currently awaiting call backs, but will not wait too long, will address this more aggressively.)

My first step, just so I cover my bases will be to send a letter to my CCM and her boss and CEO. I really don't want to do this, but I must follow steps to see if any problems can be addressed. Secondly, I will then address the Ethics Hotline.

Again, this does not feel right to me because I'm assuming that Ethics Hotline is "hired" by MedQuist and will therefore not be of help.

I then will send out to as many attorneys as I can to see who will take the case without initial fees or minimal fees involved. I will be sending this out locally, then regionally, then US-wide since we are a "national/global" company. Around the same time, I will be sending letters and documentation to as many media heads as possible. (This has worked for me before in another arena.)

Along with all of this, I will be sending out to as many politicians as possible.

First to do will be to draft a letter to MedQuist and email it to them. I need to gather as much information for this as possible.

If I have an attorney nailed down, and he/she gives me the okay; and MedQuist still does not want to take us seriously, I would like to plan a one-hour strike across the board of MTs,MMEs/QA/Speech Recognition editors/etc, just to get the attention of MedQuist. If that doesn't work, then a three-hour rolling strike - will explain later.

Bottom line, however, is that we do not want to jeopardize patient care in any way. Patients are our first line of concern. With only a one-hour strike, I believe we can get their attention without jeopardizing patient care.

At the same time, we need to have people understand that their information is not safe in other countries along with saving our jobs to a better level of income!"

What I'm seeing is that many individuals and even a major organization wants to do something, but talking about it has resulted in what, I'm not sure. Action needs to take place. Or am I wrong? Should we just keep complaining and do nothing? I admit, personally, I can be very good at that! (Smile)

would never strike - for any lenght of time

[ In Reply To ..]
That is pointless and you will never get enough people to participate to cause the effect you want. Secondly,
I would find the attorney before you write off letters to anyone, including MQ. Third, unless you have some way of keeping all of the MQ employees notified of an "impending case," you will not get enough support for a class action suit of any kind because we are all isolated.
And lastly, I dont think you have any case based solely on the fact that they can offshore and are awarded by the government for doing so. They are allowed to cut wages. They are allowed to set line counts and quality standards. They are doing everything legal, unless someone can prove line count discrepancies, which I doubt.

Sorry, that is how I see it.

I agree with you 100% - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
I check regularly and have found no discrepancies in my line counts or pay. The policies of MQ are all legal. Companies have the right to decide wages, set quality standards and policies, and decide where they want their work done, on-shore or off-shore. I personally do not see any basis for a lawsuit.

Also, I would never go on strike as it serves no purpose other than to open up a spot for some off-shore MT, LOL

Certainly, the OP, mtmqemp, could better utilize her/his time/energy looking for or training for another profession less miserable to her/him and maybe even better paying. Just saying.

I say "right-on"! - Meerkat

[ In Reply To ..]

I say, I hope AHDI dorks don't get what you deserve - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
x

lawyer - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
Right now I'm so tired that I'm totally brain-dead, so I don't know how much help this will be. I read recently that (can't remember her name) who successfully took on (big corporation, can't remember who) that they made a movie about a few years ago (can't remember the name of the movie) still takes on challenging cases like this to represent the peons against the giants. I know this sounds like a totally ridiculous post, but hopefully someone will know who I am talking about, or maybe I will remember later.

Erin Brockovich? - my guess

[ In Reply To ..]
??

YES!!!!! - duh

[ In Reply To ..]
I can't believe I couldn't remember her name! It's worth a try.

woo hoo - i get the boobie prize

[ In Reply To ..]
I finally remembered a name! I cannot believe it.

Knock yourself out and good luck suing a - No name

[ In Reply To ..]
foreign company. I suspect any lawsuit filed will be answered by MQ/CBay with pulling the remaining work even quicker over to India and not employing any US MTs at all or AHDI getting any settlement offered like before. The trend is for the cheapest services and off-shore provides that, and all companies have to do it in order to stay competitive and in business. You can go to every big MT company and find they are not much different than MQ in polices and pay, and many of them off-shore work. MT is no longer a living-wage profession for everybody, but no different from the changes in many other professions these days. Sue them all.

I prefer to stay under the radar in order to continue to feed my family for as long as I can in this profession, which I am having no problem doing at the moment with MQ (I personally have found no discrepancies in my line counts/pay and I check regularly). I have worked for many of the big MT companies over the years and they are all pretty much the same with pay and policies. IMHO, a lawsuit is not going to change how MT companies operate to stay in business, and off-shoring and lowering pay is not against the law, it is business.

Good luck

agree and also disagree - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, these companies are not doing anything against the law...BUT...if someone is willing to try to change things, even against all odds, they need only look to those who saw the wrong in the unfair practices of sweat shops in the late 1800s/early 1900s, those who established unions for protection against unfair practices of the big auto companies, all the way up to the present and those who saw the wrong in dirty practices of big banks. These people were able to bring about changes in laws to protect the workers. Just because all the big MTSOs are following the same practices of off-shoring and reducing pay does not make it right. This country is at a turning point where SOMEONE needs to stand up, and I applaud the OP for her efforts. It may be a futile attempt, and yes, we all are desperate to keep our jobs and not rock the boat, but unless someone stands up and fights, things will continue to get worse in ALL INDUSTRIES, not just MTSOs.

Touche. I should not discourage someone for - No name

[ In Reply To ..]
at least trying to make a positive change no matter how futile I think it may be. Age and experience have made me grow cynical. I apologize.

Getting a lawyer - what say I - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I say good luck to you. I was in the group that sued MQ for dancing around with our line counts several years ago. They have all the money in the world to fight you. MQ plays by the Golden Rule: HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES. Good luck to you. If you can kick these sharks in the pants, I'll buy you a drink.

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