Wrongful Termination of Healthcare Worker

For the last two years, I was a security officer at Kaiser South San Francisco. “Securitas” is the company providing private security to almost all the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals in California.

I am here to tell you that Securitas is a threat to public safety. 

My title was “Emergency Department Specialist.” Ever since March, we’ve been on mandatory overtime to enforce the Hospital shut down; no visitors allowed and employees must be screened. We were diligent in screening Kaiser employees, but Securitas employees were NEVER screened. 
At the start of shift, we go to the office to pick up our radio and keys, sign in, and go to the main entrances to take every Healthcare employees temperature before they enter. Never did anyone screen us, not once have we been asked if symptomatic, nor checked our temperature. For all we know, the security officers themselves may potentially have COVID, yet they come in close contact with every single healthcare employee in the hospital. 

My hours were Monday-Friday, 04:00am - 04:00pm. 12 hours a day, five days a week. Almost every single minute of these 60 hour shifts, spent inside the Emergency Room. That was my job; protect the E.R, and that’s what I did. 

But Securitas never cared to protect me. 

Securitas has an extremely strict “sick policy”. It’s very simple: you’re only allowed to take three days off in an entire year for sick related leave. If you were severely sick in March and had to take 3 sick days off of work to recover, that’s okay, just make sure you never get sick again until NEXT MARCH  or else you’re fired  

They did not make an exception for COVID.

Remember that I spent 60 hours a week in the E.R? I had countless close interaction with COVID positive patients. I was required to escort EACH  COVID positive patient from the E.R to their new private room in the hospital, in order to make sure that no other nurse/doctor comes in close encounter with that patient. With the most minimal protective equipment given to me.

Well, it’s simple math; have a lot of close encounters with patients that have a confirmed infectious disease, numerous times a day, for so many days a week, of course my probability of contracting COVID skyrockets. The icing on the cake is that my wife and I have a newborn child at the house. So it’s in my best interest to be as safe as possible. 

My first real scare was in one April night. At 01:00am, I wake up and my bed sheets are soaked with my own sweat. I’m shaking uncontrollably, and my muscles feel like noodles. Before I knew it, I was involuntarily throwing up in bed and my wife had to help me sit up- I was so weak I was practically chocking on my own vomit because I was laying down and had no muscle strength to sit up. Within minutes, I could no longer breath as I normally did, and I was wheezing/panting for every breath of air. I was rushed into the ER, where I was placed in the COVID section of the hospital due to my symptoms. I was tested, and thankfully received test results days later that I was COVID negative, but was positive for another awfully contagious disease. 

I was placed off work for an extended period by my healthcare provider, but I insisted to shorten the duration and return to work. In total, I only took 4 days off, which was a fraction from what doctors advised. 

Upon my return, I had a corrective action (Write-up) waiting for me. They reminded me that Securitas employees are only allowed 3 days of sick time per year, not a minute more. I was “lucky” to still have a job according to them. 

To be perfectly clear, Securitas wanted me to return to work in the E.R, against doctor recommendation, despite diagnosed with an infectious disease, and still MAY have COVID (I was informed my test was not 100% accurate). Securitas is a threat to public safety. 

I accepted the fact that I have violated company policy, signed my ‘Write-Up’, and continued doing my job. Everyday, kissing my newborn and wife goodbye at 04:00am, escorting COVID positive patients until 04:00pm, rinse and repeat. 

Fast forward over a month, now it’s been over thirty days of exposure. I have another scare. This night, I couldn’t fall asleep at all. It was a Friday night, and I was in bed tossing and turning, and progressively sweating thru the bed more and more. I thought nothing of it, opened the windows, turned on the fan, removed my blanket, but my whole body was drenched in sweat very quickly nonetheless, and I lost strength in all my muscles. Doctors advised us this is the greatest symptom, so at this moment I was terrified.

Exactly the same as I did last time, I gave my employer a very advanced heads up- not once did I “no call no show” or call of late. It was always at least 4 hours before my shift, which is what company policy states is required. I informed them what I am feeling, and if they could offer advice. 

The answer I received from my manager was “Josef the only advice I can give you is that I better see you here at 04:00am because you know you depleted your 3-sick-day reserve.” 

With this in mind, I decided to tough it out, and hopefully it’ll be gone in the morning. 

I was wrong, and it got way worst as the night progressed, my wife urging me to go to the E.R, but I kept denying because then I’ll spend the night there and lose my job. Once 04:00am cake around however, I was in no position to drive myself to work, and called them back saying I cannot show up. 

I took that Friday off for recovery, and thankfully over the weekend my condition improved, and I returned to work on Monday. I only took one day off. 

Below is all the supplementing documents enforcing my thesis that Securitas is a threat to public safety. I’ve included sworn statements I was given and signed, where my managers clarify with me that I’m only allowed 3 sick days per year, no exception, and “According to company records sick time will not reload until March 2021.” 

March 2021. 

I was suppose to keep working 60 hours a week from March 2020 until March 2021 without taking a single day off. It doesn’t matter if I’m symptomatic or not. I better show up. 

Because I needed to protect myself, my family, and every healthcare professional/patient in Kaiser, and took the minimal necessary time off, I was terminated after two faithful years as an Emergency Department Security Specialist with Kaiser. 

This has been a challenging time for my family and I- I’m newly wed to my amazing and supportive wife Isabel, and our beautiful newborn son Solomon. It has been a great struggle making ends meet being the sole provider for a family of three in the Bay Area; that’s why I’m reaching out to the community for support. 

Even if you can’t support, please spread this word to protect all your loved ones who use Kaiser as a hospital. Kaiser has no clue that Securitas is a trojan horse behind their lines, destroying it from the inside. Kaiser has been extremely careful with asking their employees to stay home with pay if they present any risk, but Securitas has been thwarting all that progress by sending potentially infectious employees to the hospital every day. 

Any donation you could make to aid in the loss of a healthcare employees job will be a tremendous generosity as I try and catch up with finances to provide for my family. 

If you’re in California, please spread this word far and wide- Securitas is a threat to public safety and destroying Kaiser from the inside out.