JFL Nurse Fired After Speaking About ER Security Won Arbitration; Union Says $275K+ Compensation Still Unpaid

ST. CROIX — The territory’s nursing union has asked the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands to enforce an arbitration award involving former Juan F. Luis Hospital emergency-room nurse Michelle Montoya, who was fired days after speaking publicly about security failures at the hospital and was later found by an arbitrator to have been terminated without just cause. The Virgin Islands State Nurses Association Collective Bargaining Unit says Montoya was owed just over $275,000 as of February 2025, an amount that would continue increasing until the matter was fully resolved. The union alleges that JFL later promised to develop a payment proposal but stopped communicating, leaving the compensation unpaid. The lawsuit is the second complaint filed in two days alleging that JFL failed to pay compensation connected to the wrongful termination of a nurse. Firing Followed Emergency-Room Security Incident The dispute traces back to May 2022, when two individuals entered JFL’s emergency room ...