N.Y. Hospital Illegally Fired Nurse Who Left Surgery, NLRB Rules

A New York hospital violated federal labor law by firing a nurse who left the operating room during spinal surgery to participate in a union action, a divided National Labor Relations Board ruled.

New York Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital didn’t investigate or punish another nurse for her longer operating room absence amid a similarly complex procedure, the NLRB said in its 2-1 ruling Monday.

That disparate treatment was one of several factors to convince the board majority—composed of two Democratic members—that the hospital wouldn’t have sacked Rosamaria Tyo “had it learned that she had left the OR for 28 minutes ...