Union Says WV Mental Hospitals Violating Federal Laws

{West Virginia}...John Thompson, a field organizer for the West Virginia Public Workers Union, says state mental hospitals William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital in Weston and Mildred-Mitchell Bateman Hospital in Huntington are violating several federal labor laws concerning overcrowding, staff turnover and unpaid overtime. The union has sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Michael Lewis outlining the alleged lapses in overtime compensation and other problems. The union's attorney says the state has failed to follow provisions of a 2009 court order, which called for reducing involuntary commitments and cutting patients' average length of stay. The order also had called for the state's two psychiatric-care facilities to boost pay in order to retain workers. Charleston attorney Brian Yost sent a letter last week to Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Michael J. Lewis, questioning failures by Sharpe and Bateman to pay their workers more in order to "recruit staff and retain existing staff." Yost's letter ended, "If an amicable resolution cannot be reached, or if the DHHR is not interested in discussing these matters, we are prepared to exercise all legal rights available to these employees."