🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DA2wvK.Av0@news2.new-york.net> Mary Carroll,
mcarroll@carroll.com writes:
>Someone sent me a copy of an ad they got in their long term
>care facility in NJ today.  It was from a Korean nurse
>recruiting firm offering to get the facility RN's who will work
>as LPN's.  The letter goes on to state (quoting directly)
> "I have available a qualified pool of Registered Nurses
>   willing to work as Licensed Practical Nurses".
>There is no charge to the hiring facility, the nurses pay a fee to
>this company.
>
>IS THIS LEGAL?????????
>Can an RN work as an LPN?  The ad states they are US licensed.
>Are we going not only to be downsized out of jobs,, but replaced
>by RN's willing to work for less than their worth?
>
>I'm going to call my state nurses association tomorrow and let them
>know, but does anyone here have any suggestions for action?  Is this
>going on in your area or just NJ?
>
>I don't want to post the company's name/address from their letterhead.
>I don't want to give them the free publicity, but if you want
>to write/call them and let them know what you think of their
>practices, EMAIL me and I'll send it to you.
>
>Thanks for letting me type off some steam!
>                             Mary
>                               mcarroll@carroll.com
>


Mary:  I'm a Nurse Recruiter and Certified Personnel Consultant (similar
to a CPA vs an accountant).  I'd advise two paths that would probably
have much greater impact than your state nursing association.  First of
all, contact your local immigration office and obtain the information
about the hurtles employers have to go through (over) to hire non-US
residents.  There is a process they must go through to certify that there
are no US residents available for the position(s) before they can get the
legal authority to hire from outside the US.  (Sorry, I'm not an
immigration attorney and don't have immediate access to all those rules).
 Doing this will arm you with critical information you can then use in
conjunction with your state nursing association to combat this situation.

Secondly, and maybe much more effective, find out what part of NJ
government controls the licensing of "employment agencies".  Whenever the
candidate pays a fee to a third party for work done on their behalf that
results in their employment, the third party must be a licensed
employment agency and must work within the guidelines of the state rules
governing employment agencies.  Those rules are usually very strict
(there have been too many con men in that field many years ago) and it
would be very, very difficult for an employment agency to represent
Korean nurses in this manner without violating many of the rules and
regulations governing their work.  I suspect that if you called that
state agency and asked them if the company from whom you received the ad
was a licensed employment agency you'd find that they were not licensed
and you could file an immediate complaint that the state would have to
act on, probably putting that company out of business.

Don't get hung up on the RN license vs LPN work area as I don't think
that that area will be as effective in combating this situation as the
two I have suggested above.  I also strongly suspect that these nurses
are RNs in Korea, NOT in the US.  Hence, the wording you indicate above.

Good Luck,

Al Todak
Nurse Recruiter