0.9 is not full time?!

[simvee]

Our hospital just quietly transitioned to a new policy, wherein 0.9 FTE nurses (3 12 hour shifts) are not considered full-time. They reassure us that this policy only affects new nurses, and old 0.9ers will be grandfathered into full time.

Of course, some of us just recently moved to 1.0 status because they asked us to​, so we're not happy that we can never go back to 0.9 without paying sky-high part-time insurance premiums!

Has anyone else heard of this? They're insisting that the "0.9 = full time" thing was an incentive to attract nurses in a shortage. I think they're just lying. I thought the whole idea was that employers wanted nurses to go to 12 hour shifts (which nurses wanted as well) because it's financially better for the company, but the only way they could convince anyone to do that was to make three 12's count as full time.

I think the take-home message here is "It's a bad economy, you're not going to find a job anywhere else, so eat it."

Anyone else's thoughts? What's the history of this?

[klone, MSN, RN]

So you're saying they're making 0.9 FTE employees pay part-time insurance premiums?

[sailornurse]

Time for you to call the labor board in your state and find out what the legal aspects of the hospital's move means for you and for the new employees. Hospitals sometimes try things that are not quite legal.

When the Family Medical Leave Act first came out (1993 or so) I was pregnant and our human resources department was "misinterpreting" it. When I was put on bedrest and could not work, the HR person tried to tell me that for every day I had called in sick due to the pregnancy, the days would be deducted from the 12 weeks allowed. I informed her it was up to my doctor to determine when I was medically cleared to return and that they were "mucking" with a federal law. I called the labor board and he already knew the lady's name! The man at the labor board ended up getting 2 extra weeks from the hospital for me.

The whole thing was stupid as they had plenty of openings for RN's and the law is meant to protect my job for me, hold an RN job somewhere in the hospital, it's not for them to dictate your return date from a medical procedure.

\

So call your labor board!!!

[caliotter3]

"It's a bad economy, you're not going to find a job anywhere else, so eat it" sums it up nicely. The employer always finds a spin for a negative policy and they expect the employee to fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. This is one of the reasons I do not support twelve hour shifts. No employer wants to pay eight hours straight time and four hours overtime, so they convince the employees that the 12 hours for 36 hrs with full time benefits is better in the long run. I am tired after eight hours and I believe I earn overtime. If I were getting full time benefits for 0.9/FTE, I would feel I earned that also. This would be a burr under my saddle.

[MunoRN, RN]

Currently there is no requirement that employers provide health insurance to anyone, part or full-time (except for MA I believe). That will change in 2014 when PPACA (Obamacare) will require large employers to offer plans to employees and full-time will be defined as greater than 30 hours, although that assumes PPACA will still be around by then.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

At my facility, one .9 employee is not the same as another. If you work 3 12's (the employer's preference), you are considered full-time and reap the benefits of that designation. If you arrive at 36 hours by any other, you are considered part-time.

[NBMom1225]

Where I'm at, 0.9 is considered part-time with full-time benefits.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

We are considered full time for anything over 32 hours per week. Below that is part time.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

It depends where you work, and what their written policy is. I work a .9 also. At my facility, anything less than 1 or a 100 percent FTE is considered part time. However, part timers also receive a generous benefits package at my facility.

[Fiona59]

Same as Joanna. Our employer regards full time a 77.75 hours over a two week pay period. Anything less and you are a part timer.

I can pick up enough extra hours to make full time hours over the time period and I'm still considered part time for pension purposes.

Our benefits (medical, dental, disability) package is the same as full timer except that disability payouts are based on our official position size (which I haven't worked in ten years).

[netglow, ASN, RN]

The only reason to make a big move like that is to reduce benefits, as well as, to be able to cut a large amount of people loose when census drops or, they just want to reduce the workforce there ...no unemployment liabilities, among other things. The less "tenured" folks need to start looking.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

We are considered FT status, but we don't go into time and a half until over 40 hrs of work, excluding shift OT. I'm talking about committee work, etc.