BONUS REVOKED

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So, I was schedule to work an extra shift at a bonus of $250.00. I noticed on the upcoming assignment sheet that my name was written out to the side and another nurse was in my place. When I asked HR about it, I got this response:

I have someone willing to work that shift for bonus of $100 and cannot justify the higher bonus of $250. I have spoken to __________ in regards to this and from a financial standpoint, we cannot pay the higher bonus when someone is willing to work for the lesser amount. She has to get approval for these bonuses and we cannot justify paying the higher bonus. If you are willing to work for the bonus of $100 as originally planned, you will be able to keep the shift. We try to only call off nurses when census does not justify the amount of nurses.

I was not notified of this in advance. Is it ok/legal to revoke a scheduled bonus shift and give it to someone willing to work for less money?!

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I don't know how much success you'll have or if you have a leg to stand on.

Is there anything written in facility P&P or personel R&R that give you some pull? If not, at least that 'response' you received seemed politely honest and short, sweet & to the point (altho NOT what you wanted to hear). It does make sense. Seems like HR pulled rank on the nsg staffing coord for the bonus-issuing offer which turned out to be unauthorized.

Do you have any union leverage to support you? Otherwise, you may be S-O-L as administration/HR holds the higher hand!

Just keep this incident in mind for future calls. Their loss!

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Specializes in Critical care.

I'm thinking that this is within their legal rights. Similar to when they cancel or put us on call for low-census...the special compensation rate is not guaranteed, I'm betting.

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I was not notified of this in advance. Is it ok/legal to revoke a scheduled bonus shift and give it to someone willing to work for less money?!

Yes ...but they may find that people become unwilling to "bite" when offered incentives if they're frequently taken back.

I used to work a day of overtime here and there, even though it was last minute and inconvenient. Then later in the week, I'd get my regular shift canceled at the last minute and lose that overtime as a result. I eventually stopped "helping out" and just stuck with my regularly scheduled shifts. Why allow my schedule to be so erratic with no reward when it could be predictable, instead?

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I see them being wrong (or low on the integrity scale) because they did not approach you about the lower pay. If they wanted to pay you $100 then they should have offered that to you in the beginning, or at least mentioned it, so that you would not be surprised at their answer. Unfair in that respect. As previously advised, keep this behavior in mind. If it were me, depending upon my need for the extra cash, I don't think I would go with being roped around. Future answers from me would probably be "no".

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Specializes in tele, ICU, CVICU.

A hospital I used to work at would offer 'bonus time' (2X hourly rate) for extremely desperate situations. And we all knew if you signed up for bonus time, you were the first cancelled for that shift, and also a normal shift in that week, to lose those hours above your straight-pay hours.

I imagine that HR has the upper hand, legally. But as PP stated, this habitual practice of offering and then not allowing the OT hours resulted in many employees electing to not agree to it in the first place. S

Sorta not nice, but it is a business and the $$ always wins.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Is it ok/legal to revoke a scheduled bonus shift and give it to someone willing to work for less money?!
Yes, this is legal. It is wrong, but perfectly legal.

In fact, your workplace is not even legally obligated to offer to pay a bonus to an employee in exchange for working an extra shift.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

The trick of 'bonus shifting' or 'overtime shifting' and then canceling a regular shift for an employee is an old 'tried & true' ruse to get someone to cover a shift quickly. Esp used on holidays. And then the employee gets $horted.

Many times this happens when an employee has had sick time used during the pay-period and doesn't think about it. Just sees "OVERTIME", but doesn't remember the caveat of 'hours WORKED'. So he'd be skunked in the paycheck and disappointed when it'd be explained by payroll.

I sometimes would 'warn' staff when OT or PRN schedules were posted. The only time the employee won was if the OT time occurred at the end of the payroll period.

Sad.

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Update:

I went over my HR head (she's relatively new to HR) and spoke with my administrator (who originally agreed to the 250.00 bonus rate) and she agreed to pay me the full bonus for that shift. She will see if the new nurse on the schedule can work Friday night instead of Saturday, which is my shift, otherwise I may have to change to Friday, but I WILL be getting the agreed upon bonus of 250.00.

Here's to standing up for yourself and what you think is right! This one goes to the little guy! (Girl actually :) )

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Specializes in ICU.

Thanks for the update. I was wondering how somebody else got to go in and pretty much underbid others for overtime pay. If the $250 was offered, did a random nurse just go in and say, Hey, I'll do it for $100? That just doesn't sound right. They agreed to you working that shift for the extra $250, it almost sounds like something shady was going on behind the scenes there. I'm really glad you asked and stuck up for yourself. You were already signed up and you were agreed that $250. To me that's a contract. And while yes, you would be the first cancelled if the census had dropped, that's usually spelled out specifically in the policy ahead of time. Somebody coming in and bidding the job for cheaper? Probably not in the policy.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Am also saying KUDOS to you for sticking to your guns. :up: I guess the administer is the top dog in your situation, but I'll bet the same situation will never occur the same way again.

Just one thing - that other nurse has now been bumped when she signed up to work, like you, in good faith for a bonus on a specific date. She should also be compensated.

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To be short and sweet, you are picking up a shift so you have nothing to stand on aside from saying they should have let you know first. It isn't like they took away a new hire sign on bonus after the fact. They may have been sloppy about their methods, but nothing remotely close to illegal happened. Sorry you feel screwed though.

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