On assignment threatening to sue me

[blairb1234]

Hello-
I wanted to share my experience in hopes that this will not happen to another nurse. This was my first travel assignment and boy were we railroaded! I think that nurses have a right to be informed about a company before using them. I am posting my letter that I wrote to On assignment's President and VP! I have not recieved any response from them, not even after many emails and voicemails! I was threatened by my recruiter's manager that if I did not take down my post from another forum that he would sue me! They are being bullies!!! Below is my letter:


To whom it may Concern: October 30, 2007

I would like to share my experience with you as a traveling nurse with your company. It has always been a dream of mine to take a travel nurse job and experience the different aspects of healthcare in the United States. I was fortunate not to have to take this journey alone, as I recruited a fellow nurse, who was equally excited about the experience. After weeks and weeks of our recruiter (Michael A.) trying to find us the perfect match we were told that LAC USC Medical center had two positions available for us. Excited and nervous we packed our car and began a 2700 plus journey to Sacramento to obtain our nurses license. Our contract at the time provided us up to $1400 travel reimbursement. Our recruiter stated that he gave us more money for upfront to cover the cost of the hotel room in Sacramento and several other expenses that he promised from the beginning to cover (fed ex overnight shipping costs, rubella titer, etc.). When we received the travel expense sheet (on the second driving day) and it clearly stated that it only reimbursed for mileage, when we questioned our recruiter he stated that it would not be a problem “just make the mileage add up to $1400.” From the beginning we did not like having to be dishonest to receive money that was promised to us. Remember the money initially was lower for travel reimbursement, Michael only at the very end raised the price to cover costs of extra items. If we had known at this point that legally the company only covered miles, we would not have accepted the contract. We still have never been paid the entire $1400, but more on that later! Okay so we arrive in Sacramento, receive our nursing license and head to Los Angeles. Eight hours later we arrived at The Extended stay Burbank , a 2 star less than clean hotel/apartment building. The room was substandard! The first room that we checked into had cigarette burns in the linens and chair, part of the closet was broken and lying in pieces on the floor, and the tub did not drain. We promptly went to the front desk and asked to be moved into another room. The second room was the same if not worse. There were cigarette burns in the carpet, bedding and furniture. The sink did not drain and the odor in the air enough to make one sick at their stomach. We promptly alerted our recruiter and made him aware that the accommodations were not acceptable. We were told that there was nothing that they could do at the moment and that we would have to “hold tight” (remember that we have just driven 4 days across country and lugged 6 weeks worth of clothes into 2 different rooms). The next day at Orientation we found that none of the On assignment nurses were happy with the living situation and that one nurse refused to stay from the very beginning and was moved to the Marriott across the street. The nurses’ name was Danielle and she actually has video of Roaches crawling in her room at the Extended Stay, which she informed On assignment about. So after a long day of Orientation we were told that if On assignment would not be charged for that day then we could move to an Extended stay in Glendale. We were not very happy, seeing that we had to negotiate our move with the hotel. We felt that On assignment should had taken care of this. We were lucky that the Extended Stay in Burbank was willing not to charge On assignment for the night, and so we packed up the car again and moved to Homestead In Glendale. This was the only acceptable housing that we had the entire trip, but since there were two us sharing a king bed ( only room available) we were told that if we resigned a longer contract we could move to a one bedroom at Oakwood. So we decided to resign and move to Oakwood. The apartment here was a close second to the ES in Burbank. Upon arrival, the carpet had cigarette ashes and black stains running from the door into the living room. There was a foul musty odor, and the furniture was black with stains. The apartment looked to have been partially cleaned, but exhausted we decided to clean it ourselves. We found pill bottles and personal items left by the last tenant under furniture, as well as parts of the refrigerator in the living room. We immediately notified Tammy (housing),our Recruiter, and Oakwood. The solution was to clean the carpets. At this point we were so exhausted having to move, work and FIGHT for standard housing that we surrendered and decided to stay. It was not until several nights of loud college partying and people trying to buy drugs outside of our window that we demanded to be moved. Unfortunately On assignment never granted our request to move, as there were no long term apartments open expect one which we declined, seeing as it was a close tie with the first apartment on cleanliness. So we have suffered and lived in housing that is not acceptable- but we are the only ones who seem to care. Last time I thought about it housing was part of our employment package, but what do I know. We decided that we were fighting a losing battle and resigned to placing sheets on the furniture and keeping our shoes on at all times. Not to mention trying to avoid drug dealers.

Now on to our contracts!! We initially signed a contract valid until October 27th. As this contract was drawing to a close, we were offered a contract until December 16th. We were happy with this because we wanted to be home for the holidays, which we were up front about from the start. Last week after signing contracts we were abruptly told that Lac Usc had canceled my contract and that I would be out of a job immediately. Disappointed, confused and tired ( I had worked all night and had no sleep) I came to terms with not having a job, and no travel expense money home. I was then alerted several hours later that we would be extended until November third if I wanted to. This was presented as an option not a requirement. I agreed, because my recruiter stated that he would be able to obtain travel money home for us, because we would be into our second contract. Of course this has not worked out. We were next told that LAC had decided to uphold our contract and that it was valid again until December 16th. This lasted over the weekend, when we were abruptly alerted that unless we resigned a contract until January 26th today (within hrs) we would be out of a job as of November 5th. On assignment has known from the beginning that we wanted to be home for the holidays with our families. We were told that if we did not stay until November 5 th we would lose our travel money, have to pay $600 for our apartment, and loose our referral bonus. We expressed our needs and concerns not only to our recruiter but to his boss Chris c. We have been treated like common criminals. Chris C. has stated that we are breaking our contract and has made threats that we will not receive money owed to us. I hardly believe that it is reasonable or fair to daily change the date on a contract and expect that we will be able to continue to ride this roller coaster ride of not knowing daily if we have a paycheck. When we questioned our recruiter about going home, he told us “just sign the contract that states you will be here until January 26th, but you can leave on December 16th and we will not punish you.” I explained to him that we do not feel comfortable signing a legal document stating that we will stay until Jan, if we knew up front that we would not be staying. His reply was” don’t worry about it, just leave in December”. I do not appreciate be asked by a company to lie and sign a contract. I have never worked for any employer who has asked me to be untruthful. After we decided not to stay, we have been threatened and treated like criminals. We have been told that we broke our contract and that we would have to pay the expenses of breaking a legal document. First of all , we have not broken anything. We have up held our end of the bargain and worked. We do not feel that we should have to pay for the apartment, seeing as we were told by our recruiter that we had to be out of it effective immediately October 28th. We have lost a lot of money and sleep over this entire situation. Not to mention that we still have never received the rest of our travel money from the first contract. We were told that if we lied and made up a side trip to Las Vegas that On Assignment would pay us the rest of the money. We are not willing to lie and cheat to receive a compensation that was promised to us. It is not in good business practice to treat nurses like this. I would like to discuss this further, as I have not included everything. I think that you should be aware of how your company and employees have been conducting themselves. We are now out of a job before the holidays, have to drive 2700 miles with no travel money, are out of health insurance, and are being charged money for a situation that we did not create. This is unfair and needs to be resolved. I would appreciate you prompt attention to this matter. Please contact me at

Sincerely,

[MRS. ERNURSE]

wow, That is really discouraging for travel. What kind of tips precautions can you take to prevent this situation? Only travel to areas you are familiar or have family/ friends?????

[jane123]

I did one assignment, my first assignment and my last assignment with On Assignment. The people that I work with were pleasant enough and that really wasn't a problem. Initally, I got a rough start and I was very frustrated with the whole process of having to getting my liscensure, and finding my way to my apartment and than on orientation day having to take test after test all day long. My apartment wasn't the best apartment but it was acceptable to me. The whole experience has soured med on being a travel nurse because having being on the assignment I saw things that I didn't like and I saw how things could be much worse. When you take a assignment with a hospital you do not know how that hospital is going to be. I considered myself to be lucky and I went back home to a permenant jog. Hearing your experience with On Assignment it seems like I was right. I hate that you had such an experinece

wow, That is really discouraging for travel. What kind of tips precautions can you take to prevent this situation? Only travel to areas you are familiar or have family/ friends?????

[AmandaWIRN]

You can avoid some of these situations by doing a LOT of research on a hospital before taking an assignment- on the internet, word of mouth from other travelers, etc. Also, if it seems like a certain hospital is ALWAYS hiring lots of travelers, there's usually a good reason for that, and it's usually not a good sign.....