UVa has agreed to pay the five fired hospital employees $22,000, or roughly three months of severance pay per person. The former employees can reapply for their jobs, and UVa says that they’ll be considered the same as any other applications. One of the plaintiffs likened the the settlement to pacifying a child, that UVa provided just enough to quiet the ex-employees. Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
-
Archive for Sideblog »
Well duh, who didn’t see this one coming? This only confirms what supporters of the emplyees have said all along: what UVA did was blatantly illegal, and there is no way the hospital could win a court battle over this. And UVA seems to know this, judging from their offer. However, I can’t help but wonder if it would make more sense for the plaintiffs to refuse the offer and stick in there in the court case, suing them for hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps even millions? After all, there is no gauruntee that any of these people will get their job back if they take the hospital’s deal, and even so, $22,000 is pretty paltry in comparison to how much they could get out of a lawsuit. Then again, I don’t know whether the plaintiffs are suing for damages or not.
I gathered from the article that the plaintiffs (being as how they don’t have any money, since they lost their jobs) pretty much had to take the settlement, out of basic financial need. Bummer.
Good grief, they could have at least had the decency to pay them $22,000 each.
Bad UVA hospital! Bad!