[Emmanuel Goldstein]

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs31.htm

Common Industry Problems

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.


The most common violation in the nursing care industry is the failure of employers to pay for all the hours worked. This uncompensated time most frequently occurs when employers fail to pay for work performed:

• Before and after a worker's scheduled shift;

• During an employee's scheduled meal period; and

• While employees are attending staff meetings and compensable training sessions.

Minimum wage and overtime pay violations also occur when employers make deductions or demand reimbursement for the cost of required uniforms or equipment.


Individuals not otherwise employed by the facility who volunteer – without expectation of pay – to attend to the comfort of nursing home residents in a manner not otherwise provided by the facility are not considered employees under the FLSA. However, individuals (including residents) who perform work of any consequential economic benefit to the facility are employees and entitled to FLSA minimum wage and overtime.


Overtime pay violations often occur when employers:

• Fail to pay overtime after 8 hours of work in a day for workers (both full time and part time) who are under the "8 and 80" system.

• Pay overtime after 80 hours worked during a biweekly period rather than after 40 hours in a workweek to employees not under the "8 and 80" system.

• Fail to combine hours worked in more than one department or at more than one facility when determining the total overtime hours worked.

• Fail to include in calculating overtime hours the time spent or hours worked while performing on-call assignments.

• Fail to include shift differential, bonuses or on-call fees in calculating an employee's regular rate.

• Fail to pay overtime to non-exempt, salaried employees (e.g., clerical staff, cooks, and activities directors).

I can assure you, the Feds take this VERY seriously.

I reported my facility when my manager told the staff that they could no longer charge for a missed lunch break if they had taken time here and there during their shift (i.e. going to the cafeteria for coffee, sitting down for a few minutes, smoke breaks, eating a fast 15 minute "lunch", etc), stating that all of these added up to 30 minutes total, and therefore constituted a "lunch break".

When I called, I was simply looking for clarification because what she said seemed wrong. The man I spoke with got soooo fired up over this; he demanded to know where I worked and quoted me the law as it applied to the hospital. The hospital administration got a friendly call the next day from the Feds reminding them of the law.

He never took my name, btw. It was completely anonymous.

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

More info:

http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/otcalc/i2.asp
http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/otcalc/doc7j.asp

An employer can use the standard system of overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek for some employees and the “8 and 80” exception for others at the same workplace, but cannot use both systems for a single individual employee.

The following has specifics as it relates to healthcare facilities. (meal breaks, "rest" breaks, staff meetings, "authorizing" overtime, working from home---pay attention those of you who make out the staff schedules and perform other activities away from the hospital!!), etc. Something I've seen time and again is administration telling staff they won't be paid for OT unless it's "approved". That is illegal.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs53.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs54.pdf

You part-timers need this info too; you may be qualified to receive OT pay. Also, use the calculator provided to determine if your shift differentials are being added to base pay to calculate your OT pay (I know for a fact my old employer did not do so).

http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/ot...it_to_work.asp

[dcnballmom]

OMG do they every - we now have a slip to fill out to say why we are late clocking out - i usually put on it CUZ I WAS DOING MY JOB - 50 patients to tend to, 25 labs, 15 fingersticks, not counting the numerous interuptions from admin - and dont forget that the patients lots of times want to use the bathroom when there is only 1 GNA and myself on the unit - and i forgot that there are 9 people that need to be fed meals and only 2 GNAs that are qualified to do that because my nursing admin hasnt found the time to give the feeding course to the housekeepers where I work - but they have time to go out to lunch at least once a week - and there is the never ending paperwork, the docs that have to be called, the orders that need to be written - and have mercy, if you skip that mandatory half hour lunch so you can take care of stuff on your units, shame on you there too - I dont see any way to solve the problems at my facility though - would like some answers if anyone else has figured this out - when they make 10 hours days, then maybe my patients will start getting quality care, not just hit and miss stuff

[bethin]

We've been warned but no one believed management until they fired an er clerk. She was working registration on a very slow day when she rec'd word that her mother had been brought to the er via ambulance after a car accident. She got a replacement but in her haste forgot to clock out. Her mother died and she was fired.

Yes, I know that technically the hospital is liable if she was still clocked in and an accident occurs, but the thing is the mother was a pt in our er.

I've even been asked to clock out while running labs to another hospital. Didn't clock out and never got paid for it.

They are so worried about the almighty dollar that they forget that we are humans and not machines.

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

Originally Posted by bethin

I've even been asked to clock out while running labs to another hospital. Didn't clock out and never got paid for it.

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.

Read the above links. The hospital was wrong to ask you to work off the clock and you were entitled to be paid.

[bethin]

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Goldstein

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.

Read the above links. The hospital was wrong to ask you to work off the clock and you were entitled to be paid.

I knew they were wrong. They had paid me before for running errands but not this time. I threw laws at them but got no response. Even though I know a law was broken I'm just sooo tired of fighting with them. It only took me ~40 mins to make the roundtrip so I dropped it. I guess they caught me on one of my nice days.

I no longer make those trips for them.

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

Originally Posted by bethin

I knew they were wrong. They had paid me before for running errands but not this time. I threw laws at them but got no response. Even though I know a law was broken I'm just sooo tired of fighting with them. It only took me ~40 mins to make the roundtrip so I dropped it. I guess they caught me on one of my nice days.

I no longer make those trips for them.

The DOL guy I spoke with told me that employers can do anything they want and get away with it--- so long as no one reports them

[dcnballmom]

thanks to everyone that posted here - i took the site info to work with me today, let a few more people there know what it is like - not just with us but with everyone - then i hear of another situation that i wondered about with overtime pay - and wondered it this it right too - our GNA candidates were paid during their courses, which were 60 to 80 hours total - during that time, when they were called in to work on a unit they were not paid for work, but given PDO time - is this legitimate also?

[fivewestortho]

at the facility i work at we are again asked not to go over our TO. But there isnot effort to accomodate for morning or afternoon breaks or even a lunch break without interuption. My mother in law worked in a factory and got two 15 min breaks and an hour for lunch. no wonder we have so many overweight nurses for all the snacking just to keep up some energy. I wish there was and answer but it is a time age problem. The patients come first and the nurse last. Some where in between the CEO gets paid big bucks.

[GreenNurse]

Why do the managers care if you don't take your lunch break?

I understand how frustrating it can be when you have been running your butt off all shift and need to stay overtime to complete all your tasks ... but it is even more frustrating when you see lazy nurses socializing and eating all throughout their shift and saving their charting for last and trying to play catch up in the end - of course they are going to have to clock in overtime.