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Editorial Calls Supreme Court's Pregnancy Leave Decision 'Not Just'
"The Supreme Court keeps finding ways to deny women equal pay and benefits," a New York Times editorial states in response to the court"s 7-2 ruling on Monday that employers are not required to award women credit toward pension benefits for pregnancy leave taken before Congress passed the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act. According to the Times, the ruling reflects reasoning similar to the court"s 2007 decision in which it denied former Goodyear employee Lilly Ledbetter"s "claim for equal pay because it thought she waited too long to file it." In Monday"s decision, the majority "reasoned mainly that the pregnancy leaves predated the 1978 law, and since the law was not retroactive, the discrepancy in benefits was the product of "past completed events that were entirely lawful at the time they occurred,"" the editorial states. It notes that the majority included "two generally reliable votes for equality, Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter." The editorial continues, "This may sound logical, but it is not just." The editorial says that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in writing the dissent, "quite correctly" recognized a company"s "ongoing denial of equal benefits not as past discriminatory behavior that started and ended decades ago, but as a current violation of the act." In a similar way, "Goodyear discriminated against Lilly Ledbetter by maintaining her unequal pay for years, not merely the first time the company underpaid her." The Times calls on Congress to "write corrective legislation" on pregnancy leave (New York Times, 5/21).

Changes To HPA Pandemic Flu Media Updates, UK
Government"s announcement that the UK is moving to a new phase in the response to the current pandemic flu virus means there will be a change to the surveillance information that the Health Protection Agency will be able to provide to the media in future.
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Nurses To Stage Massive Protest At County Vote To Save San Leandro Hospital - Tuesday

Registered nurses, healthcare workers and community leaders will hold a major protest rally Tuesday at noon, outside of the Alameda County Administration building. The action, one of many occurring over the last two months, is being held on the day that the board is scheduled to vote on Sutter Health"s plan to rebuild Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley as a luxury hospital with all private rooms and 48 fewer beds. It is likely that approval will result in closure of the 122-bed San Leandro Hospital, also owned and operated by Sutter. The supervisors were forced to reschedule the vote twice in the last month as a result of intense public pressure. Alameda County supervisors voted last month to purchase San Leandro Hospital and turn it into an acute rehabilitation facility. If carried out, this would end acute care and emergency room services at San Leandro Hospital. It is estimated that 17,000 of the 27,000 San Leandro emergency room patients seen annually will end up at Highland Hospital, due to the severity of their conditions, and their inadequate healthcare coverage. The California Nurses Association filed formal objections with the county challenging Sutter Health"s plan and is urging a vote against the project"s environmental impact review which will be decided by the board Tuesday. WHAT: NURSE PROTEST WHEN: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 12:00 noon WHERE: Alameda County Administration Building 1221 Oak Street, Oakland The objections assert the environmental impact report is deceptive and misleading by only considering the impact of its efforts to downsize Eden Medical Center, and not considering the related impacts that will occur if it is able to also end San Leandro"s 50-year history as an acute-care facility. Sutter hopes to shut down San Leandro Hospital by September 30, 2009. The nurses are supportive of an offer made to the Eden Township District Board last week by Prime Healthcare Services to lease and run San Leandro Hospital as an acute-care facility, if Sutter chooses to abandon the community, or if another hospital operator does not step forward. Prime has also committed to make at least $20 million in capital improvements to the facility in the first year of the lease. Prime Healthcare Services currently owns and operates 13 acute-care hospitals in California. The Eden Township Board will be holding three public meetings, June 8, 11, and 15 to get community input into the future of the hospital. California Nurses Association


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