CNA's don't get full time pay?

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2012

I'm in Texas. All of the LTC facilities around here staff the CNAs with 7.5 hour shifts (6 to 2pm, 2 to 10pm, and 10 to 6am, minus the 30 minute unpaid meal break).

If you work 10 of these 7.5 hour shifts in a two week pay period, you will only be paid for 75 hours, even though you were actually there for 80 hours. The local companies schedule in this manner to avoid paying out overtime.

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2012

If you were actually working those 80 hours you have to be paid for them. But as The Commuter said, if any of those hours are breaks (1/2 hour meal breaks) you aren't paid for them. Any hours that you are working, and not on break, you have to be paid for

peppapig123 · Feb 18, 2012

Oh, ok. So what if I choose to work through my lunch break? Will I be paid for it, or no?

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2012

Oh, ok. So what if I choose to work through my lunch break? Will I be paid for it, or no?

Legally, you have to be paid for that time. There is a system in place in every facility I have worked in that allows you to specify that you did not receive a lunch break. However, your facility isn't likely to allow you to just work through lunch because you want extra hours. You usually have to have a very good reason why you missed lunch and if it happens too often then you can bet someone will be speaking to you about it. There's two reasons for this:

1. The facility must legally give you an unpaid 30 minute break if your shift is longer than 6 hours. If the employees are not taking that break, they have to be able to justify to the labor department why that's the case.

2. They don't want to pay you extra. All of us who work in patient care know that a 30 minute break is pretty much a myth. However, the facility is concerned about their budget and they don't want to be paying employees for an extra half an hour of work each day. It really adds up. So they will make you provide a great reason why you missed your lunch that day. Just "being busy" or "didn't feel like taking a break" isn't going to cut it.

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Feb 18, 2012

Oh, ok. So what if I choose to work through my lunch break? Will I be paid for it, or no?

Nope. You can fill out the forms for "no lunch" but you'll probably get crap for it.

My first CNA job was at a horrible nursing home. The residents got one shower a week and there was one cranky patient who would would always miss his shower. His RN asked me to shower him on my shift and it caused me to stay an extra 1/2 hour longer.

If we have OT, we have to have a slip signed or we don't get paid for it. I gave my slip to the charge RN and he was looking like he didn't want to sign it saying, "Well, maybe I'll sign it since you stayed giving TD a shower..."

I was in no mood for playing said, "Let me make it easy for you: You can sign that slip and I'll come back to work tomorrow, or you can not sign it and you will never see me again."

He signed the slip.

This particular charge nurse was fired later for stealing narcs and working with another CNA to forge narc scripts.

What a hellhole. I still volunteer there.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Feb 18, 2012

What a hellhole. I still volunteer there.

:lol2:

caliotter3 · Feb 18, 2012

I hated that I wasn't paid for eight hours when I was a CNA. I always worked through my half hour break. I also didn't like staying over half an hour to give report to the next shift as a nurse. I think I should have been paid for that. One way or another they get you.

yousoldtheworld · Feb 19, 2012

I'm lucky in that my facility has paid lunches...because I rarely get my break. But other places around here have aides work 8.5 hour shifts, so they still get paid for 8 hours a day.

Kitsey · Feb 19, 2012

We have 8.5 hour shifts so we get our 8 paid. I always work though all my breaks though

student forever · Feb 19, 2012

I try to take the 15 minute break even if it is only a 1/4 cup of coffee and tskes 5 mins. And we all always take our 30 min break because we have been told and plus, it makes for better health (physical and mental) for the worker over the long haul and the res benefit from that directly and the worker over decades. Yes, it is very important in my book. I probably did not do it when younger, but I have learned some things along the way!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 19, 2012

Oh, ok. So what if I choose to work through my lunch break? Will I be paid for it, or no?

For legal purposes, the facility must pay you if you ended up working through your lunch break. However, if you display a pattern of missing too many meal breaks and requesting to be paid for working through lunch, management will most certainly find a way to get rid of you.

They'll start with verbal warnings, then write-ups for 'misconduct' or poor time management, then final written warnings before they terminate your employment. My point is that these facilities watch every single dollar like a hawk, and they will catch on if you show a pattern of working through lunch.