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UPMC MTs protest post Nuance outsourcing - The $ numbers are in stark contrast

Posted: Oct 31, 2013

These are transcriptionists that were pretty much forced to sign onto Nuance once they took over the transcription of their hospital. No option for UE or severance! After working for Nuance see how much their pay drops. Pretty disgusting, actually.

We have all experienced it, but gradually for us, bit by bit, but these poor ladies got a huge dose all at once and went from making good money and good benefits to minimum wage.

I feel for those girls. sm - mt2

[ In Reply To ..]
The pay for VR is totally wrong. I've been a MT for over 20 years and I can only make $80-100/day with this crap. And I'd like to smack that Gary guy right across the face.

What a jerk, right? - He never answers when he is asked if he is a MT

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Pretty obvious he is not. He also does not answer when queried whether he thinks the CEO salary of $6 million is fine, where we MTs are just bad sports for not upping our game to make the whopping $16/hr.

Sometimes I think we are the unluckiest group of professionals possible. Immensely skilled (whether they will admit it or not), incredibly conscientious for the most part, and previously fairly well compensated. Now what they have is a captive workforce unable to organize because so spread out AND the supposedly representative body of AHDI is the very body who is responsible for the offshoring and degradation of our pay and working conditions!

We are a microcosm of this country in a way. Rah rah free enterprise as long as it doesn't apply to you and your ilk, Gary.

UPMC MTs protest post Nuance outsourcing - Vera

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I know how they feel. I was done the same way 5 years ago. Now I am even lucky to make minimum wage. Who can survive on VR?
I have never financially recouped and getting even worse.

UE or severance - My opinion

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I didn't read the article, but I'm pretty sure if a person gets laid off due to outsourcing that makes them a free agent and they have a right to file for UE. I'm guessing, but it might be illegal for UPMC to deny them that. There are also displaced worker programs that provide for school and job retraining. These MTs are not the property of UPMC and they are not the property of Nuance. Unless someone is holding a gun to their head, they do not have to go to work for Nuance. Yes, they know the account but other people can probably do the work. A big hospital system like that should be able to offer people some options. I went through this at a much smaller facility and no one was told they had to do anything. Our employer placed those of us who wanted to stay in other jobs. Those who chose to leave got severance and were able to draw UE. The days of slavery are long gone. When they sell the plantation, labor is not part of the package.

I always thought that too - but direct quote from the article

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"They gathered in the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC, where they were told that their work was being outsourced to Nuance Communications of Burlington, Mass.

The new company would offer the transcriptionists all jobs, but after their first three months of work, they would no longer be hourly employees, according to those leading the meeting. Instead they would be paid at a rate of 8 cents a line for transcribing audio recordings or written charts dictated by doctors.

The transcriptionists were told that since they were all being placed in new jobs, they would not be eligible for unemployment nor would they be given severance pay."

So it appears in this case they were not given any choice. You would hope that would be illegal, so maybe the ladies can still triumph somehow if they can get someone to advocate for them legally. I give them credit for publicizing this.

Yes - My opinion

[ In Reply To ..]
It is great that they made this public. The rules vary by state, I guess. Where I live, a person does not have to accept a job if the pay is much less than the salary they made when laid off. Also, it is possible to file for partial UE to bridge the gap. I'm sure they were all paid well, and I doubt if Nuance is going to match it. Having a job is definitely better than not having one at all, but I still think they should have the right to choose to leave or stay. It's such an emotional time that unfortunately it's difficult to know what to do or think clearly, I'm sure their employer realizes this.

Of course they are not required to stay.... - if they want their job, however

[ In Reply To ..]
then they are told to go along with the flow and that is that. You could not make someone stay and to think otherwise is totally wrong. You either go with the outside or no job, that is what they are told, not you have to go with such and such company. Gary has no clue about the work and yet he spouts off like he knows it all. I wish for 1 day, or let me retract that, I wish for 10 minutes he would sit in my chair and see how many words, much less sentences, he would be able to make out. You and I both know how many that would be, right?

no, give me 10 minutes with Gary and a crowbar... - disgusted

[ In Reply To ..]
and then let him type

Gary is unbelievable. - (See comments section under article.)

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He actually says "The go-getters seek out ESL and thrive." I just don't know what to say. Gary Smith, counsel for Nuance.

Ann Joyal, Nuance spokeswoman, has no comment on wages. Gary makes up for her silence.

Hope they both have a good dinner every night and sleep well, with no fear and worry waking them up or their stomachs growling.

I really appreciate some of the comments - these two at the end especially

[ In Reply To ..]
So nice to know we are not crazy and not dinosaurs, that some do appreciate us and are as disgusted as we are with what is going on in these takeovers and the corporate bulldozing that is done and attempted to hush up by such as Gary.

"Art Seaman 2 days ago
This is just plain wrong. I won't go in to long anecdotes about UPMC and health care. But this is just wrong. UPMC should be ashamed. As a Presbyterian, I wan the church name taken off the place. It is an embarrassment.
Reply
1 reply
+3

Don Reed 2 days ago
I totally agree with Art. This is just disgusting."

Do not work for Nuance but so angered at what I read - wrote letter to the editor about this

[ In Reply To ..]
Have had several emails this morning back and forth with the editor. Gave her the real low down on what MTs do, how much they make, working conditions, tried to cover all bases. Also gave her a board name to read what MTs really thought about Nuance as well as other companies out there. MTs are not thrilled with VR, pay has been cut, most think sweat shop work, tried to lay it out as best I could.

UPMC - My Opinion

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I finally read the article this morning and was so disgusted that I created an account and posted a message. I basically reiterated a lot of what had already been said but I couldn't help myself.

He is exceedingly ignorant. He is only making that clearer with every word. - SM

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Much love to the MTs at UPMC. I'm proud of you sisters. You have my respect.

Gary - sickened

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Gary's an ass, plain and simple AND a liar. These suits are well aware at this stage of the game that VR is not what it was cracked up to be and that we indeed can't "double" our production, thus making up for the pay cut. It's a fallacy and they're too arrogant to admit they got scammed, conned, taken, however, you want to phrase it by whoever invented VR, so blame it on the lowly MT. I love how he throws the word subpar around. I have actually never been so sickened in my life reading his load of bullsh#t Karma baby, it's gonna bite your ass good Gary.

Just googled him and - unless I am mistaken, his position is

[ In Reply To ..]
Associate General Counsel
Director, Corporate Legal Services.

Now, is it me or would you think someone of that high and lofty title would have better things to do than make nasty comments about MTs on an article highlighting the atrocious manner in which they were treated by Nuance?

Something smells fishy about this. Methinks desperation is rearing its ugly head and with it horrible platitudes by idiotic corporate yes men. A little bewildering why this gentleman would feel threatened by little old us.

I truly find it hard to believe that any legal counsel would spout - the nonsense he has.

[ In Reply To ..]

Maybe it's this guy?: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gary-smith/32/721/628

His knowledge of MT terminology like "raw lines" would lean me more towards the above. Regardless, he's obviously a suit type of some sort who has no hands-on experience with what he's talking about at all. I finally had to delete my bookmark to that article before I finished reading all the comments because of how much just thinking about his was making my blood boil.

Yeah, that fits - But again I wonder

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Why a guy in charge of anything (especially another MTSO in Texas?) would feel he has to defend these practices WITHOUT identifying himself and his expertise and his stake in the industry. After all, it's pretty obvious what our interest is in these practices as transcriptionists.

Just wondering why this guy feels he has to defend the entire outsourcing industry, especially Nuance, if he is just an uninvolved observer.

As much of a jerk as he obviously is, need there be a "why," other - than just to be jerky?

[ In Reply To ..]

Maybe just a general anathema for MTs. I do believe he used the word "lazy" at least once (I'm not wading back into that anytime soon, if ever, so someone else would have to confirm).*

Somebody who worked around suits at MedQuist back in the day said you should have heard the way the suits talked about us, i.e., how we sit around on our lazy, fat you-know-whats at home, etc., etc.

When you think about what they do to us, there must be a lot of mental juggling and rationalization to justify what they surely know is the injustice of it all, as in making us into an "enemy" who deserves what we get. How else could they sleep at night, since there's no way that they DON'T know that doubling of straight typing rates with VR is definitely not happening (when I worked there, my TSM occasionally sent us Metrics for our whole team, so they obviously know what is really going on as opposed to what is supposedly "possible").

*[edit]: Actually, I went back and checked, and he didn't say "lazy," it was others who did. He said "slow and overpaid" (for the UPMC MTs) and who knows what else.

I didn't get through all the posts yet, but finally did venture into the fray myself, probably redundantly repeating what some of the posters had already said, but apparently the *facts* can't be stated often enough, so just as well.

Why yes, actually - I do think he needs to

[ In Reply To ..]
If not justify himself, at least identify himself and what stake he holds in this industry.

The fact that he has no compunctions about making those nasty and incorrect comments for everyone to read when the article is specifically about with the hardships of MTs of that hospital and he obviously has some sort of stake or business relationship with Nuance or the MTSO industry is not okay, and we should not accept this. Again, the answer seems to be "because he can."

By which I mean the same answer to so many questions with this company. Why did they lower the pay so much? Because they can. Why have they made it so hard to obtain any bonus at all? Because they can. Why must we check FIESA on our own time and fight the multitude of QC and QA "errors" now that they have upped the points off and apparently upped considerably the personnel poring through our work to find errors? Because they can. Why are they allowed to take away our "bonus" for 3 months when they have already cut our pay so much? Because they can.

I am thoroughly sick of all the "get out of MT while you can" people too. If they hate MT so much and have found something better, why are they hanging around on these boards trying to convince us to quit?

I guess the real problem is there is no way to fight it, and we are all isolated on our own little islands hoping we can at least not be reduced to minimum wage. The actual work of this job is still the best I have ever had though, and I am not young, have had quite a few jobs.

If you are someone who is socially awkward, bright, have fine motor skills, and good with words, this is an excellent job and I am not going to give it up unless it completely disappears due to complete automation or complete offshoring.

No matter what Nuance (or any other MTSO) says, they COULD afford to pay us more and they COULD stop the QA-as-gestapo tactics. Maybe they want us to quit, maybe they want to justify reducing us to minimum wage workers, but we shouldn't let them get away with it, at the very least not excusing jackasses like Gary. Just wish I knew how to fight it.

that's why they met - ha

[ In Reply To ..]
at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC? Ya know, those insane transcriptionists! They go crazy when they get sacrificed to line the pockets of the hospital CEO and Nuance, MModal, et al

you bet they realized it - Kyra

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UPMC had this move planned for a long time. They are actually in a business partnership with Nuance, allowing Nuance access to their data in order to develop their VR product. So for UPMC to unload the very transcriptionists who created the data from which they are now profiting...without severance, without an offer to place them in other positions within UPMC...is evil.

I suspect they are still eligible for UIB - Been Around

[ In Reply To ..]
If they were working in an office and not at home. Not everyone has workspace/environment in their homes to make working there a viable option. I think that on this basis, they could argue for and receive UIB despite what they were told. In any case, it is probably worth fighting for. Let the state decide.

They accepted a position with Nuance so it - negates UE rights.

[ In Reply To ..]
If they didn't accept the position with Nuance, they would have been eligible to file for UE.

There's more than 1 side of the story for the UPMC MTs and others who are bought out like this. But no one wants to take responsibilty for that - they only want to blame the businesses.

According to the article - they did not get a choice

[ In Reply To ..]
From the article:

"The new company would offer the transcriptionists all jobs, but after their first three months of work, they would no longer be hourly employees, according to those leading the meeting. Instead they would be paid at a rate of 8 cents a line for transcribing audio recordings or written charts dictated by doctors.

The transcriptionists were told that since they were all being placed in new jobs, they would not be eligible for unemployment nor would they be given severance pay."

So this was told to them at the very beginning according to the article. It sounds to me it was take it or leave it and if you leave it you're out of a job and no UE.

If you are privy to information that contradicts this, maybe you should request the person who wrote the article to make a correction.

It seems pretty straightforward to me. Obviously, if there was a choice available to them to accept UE, it does not seem it was made very clear until it was too late to do this. Why else would they give them the hard sell in the emergency meeting?

If you are an MT, how can you condone and cheerlead this? Please explain what the other side of the story is. Who is supposed to "take responsibility for this" in your words?

Honey, I experienced it immediately. - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
I had the same thing happen to me. What makes it different, that it was gradual? No, it's not different. For me, it was instantaneous, but so what if it happened immediately or over a period of years. I had my pay cut in half. It was and is depressing, degrading and disgusting. It's sick what this company has done. Not only have they reduced wages, they have reduced self-esteem. Get out while you still can. I did. Do the happy-I-left-Nuance dance!

Nuance can try, but they will not set the industry standard if we all say no. If you are new to MT, you need to understand that this is not okay. Do the research and believe.

This same thing happened in a hospital I worked in. - Nuance, too. sm

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Transcription companies are pure evil. I don't understand how anyone can justify working for one. I won't do it. Ever again.

One of the comments claims Nuance will - acquire M*Modal

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Anyone hear this one before? Gosh, that would be a behemoth then.

Why is it that it is always the proponents of capitalism and free markets that end up monopolizing the industry and hurting the workers? Honestly, I give up applying to jobs anymore because the nice little company you think you get employed by is swallowed up by one of these corporate monster MTSOs and now it looks like even one is eating the other?

We might as well be in China, since we have no control over our working conditions now and especially when they monopolize the whole thing and pretty much will make what little work is left minimum wage and the rest goes to India or some other country (that new South Pacific trade agreement is a worry in that regard).

Has anyone tried to post on that article itself - and your post not appear? nm

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nm

you need to register there first. also in order to vote comments up or down. - nm

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nm

I know some of them - Shiela

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I used to work with some of these women ages ago - and yes, it is true, they are barely making minimum wage. Some are taking second jobs. Some are going back to school. Some of thinking of just going and working at their local McDonalds - LOL

Let's all pool our paychecks together and hire Gloria Allred... - AMT

[ In Reply To ..]
If she gets on board with a lawsuit, you know it's on!

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