Members at the Tampa nursing home are demanding that the owner, John Bartles, change the way he runs the facility.
University Village has made the news for several times over the past couple of years for not paying its bills for basic items like food service and pharmaceuticals for residents, and for allegations of failing to pay refunds owed to residents, their estates and prospective residents. Recently, in a May 2016 Court Order in a case by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) against the company that owns University Village, the Judge recommended that the state take away the nursing home’s license to operate based on financial insolvency and recommended that the owners of University Village pay a $10,000 fine. The Order is currently under appeal.
The nursing home has also distributed paychecks that bounced, causing many financial problems to the caregivers that show up to work day in and day out.
Even as contract negotiations are under way, Bartles refuses to give hardworking caregivers the raises that they are due. Instead, he insists that they only way to move forward is to institute pay for performance, something 1199SEIU Florida members have flatly rejected.
Members have been leafleting the surrounding area asking the ce elected officials’ offices asking them to sign on to letter with a similar message. “Our concern is for our residents. This is their home, and they shouldn’t be made to suffer uncertainty because of all this,” says Shirley Lyons, an LPN at University Village.
