Inappropriate Pay Practices-Opinions please!

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Ok so here is the deal. We are severely short in our ICU right now. We have lost probably half of our staff in the last six months. Administration wants to keep up at full capacity with half the staff. Now keep in mind that some of us actually want a summer or a day off occasionally. Mandating left and right of staff. Administration's solution when they can't find enough staff? Let's offer TIME AND A HALF for picking up an extra shift. Ok, sounds reasonable. Right?

Somehow the admin has figured out a way of screwing us (surprise) of our money. Take for example my situation. I work 36 hours a week. Say I work Monday, Wedneday, and Thursday-scheduled 12 hours. I decided to pick up an extra shift on Tuesday. Supposed to be time and a half. Now I expect to be paid regular on M, time and a half on Tuesday, regular on Thursday, and time and half on Thursday because at some point, I have hit 40 hours.

Nope, admin counted M, W,Th as regular shifts and counted Tuesday's shift as overtime for the week. Supposedly has something to do with not paying double overtime. I don't think that it counts as double overtime. I think they are just screwing us over.

What do you all think? Any suggestions? Doesn't this sound illegal?

Thanks.

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Specializes in med/surg.

Tuesday, being the extra shift should be the only one you get paid time-and-a-half for, the only problem I see is if the pay the overtime only for your hours past 40. Then you first 4 hours on Tuesday will be straight time.

Don't they already pay time-and-a-half whenever you go over 40 hours? What makes this a special deal?

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Tuesday, being the extra shift should be the only one you get paid time-and-a-half for, the only problem I see is if the pay the overtime only for your hours past 40. Then you first 4 hours on Tuesday will be straight time.

Don't they already pay time-and-a-half whenever you go over 40 hours? What makes this a special deal?

They were offering time and half if you picked up a shift as incentinve. They never said that they were going to do this to our overtime.

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Specializes in med/surg.

Time-and-a-half is the standard rate for overtime. So they are only offering you what you should already be getting when you work past 40 hours or your regularly assigned schedule. Now if they were offering double time I might consider it something special.

Are you salaried or paid hourly? That might be the difference. Most places I've worked management was supposed to be salaried (meaning they could not get paid OT), but in order to attract some of the RNs into management position they allowed OT pay for working extra shifts to fill in shifts on the floor staffing.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Nursing Education.

Double time or nothing!!

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I understand what you are getting at, moonshadeau. Where I work, it would have been calculated as you probably expected:

Monday - 12 hours straight time

Tuesday - 12 hours overtime (extra shift)

Wednesday - 12 hours straight time

Thursday - 4 hours straight time, 8 hours overtime (due to being a 48-hour work week).

So you wind up with 28 hours of straight time and 20 hours of overtime.

However, counting your regular time first and then counting only the extra shift as overtime leaves you with 36 hours of straight time and only 12 hours of overtime. BIG difference in the paycheck.

The second way obviously benefits the facility and they can choose to pay you that way if they wish...it is not illegal. However, knowing that this is how they plan to calculate it, I just would not pick up any extra shifts for them. If they get desperate enough, they will hire travelers or offer a better deal to those who would pick up extra, but if people will work for less incentive - they will offer the least amount they can get people to work for.

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This is about the 100th time I have encountered this little deception since I started working with 12 hour nurses. The general rule is overtime after 40 hours, so 12 hour shift people do not get overtime until they reach 40 hours. The kicker here is , over 40 hours would be 1 and 1/2 times your regular salary anyway. These guys are giving you nothing. Our nurses demand overtime and a bonus for this extra time. Around $40.00 bonus for those 4 hours on top of overtime. Taxes take most of it, but the company was put on notice by the nurses when they demanded the bonus that the nurses were onto the companies tricks.

Why did almost half of your staff leave? Has a meeting been called by HN, DON, and CEO with nurses to discuss this issue? Is acuity taken into account? Sounds like a very difficult place to practice, be careful, overwork and stress always add up to a mistake sooner than later.

I wish you luck with addressing this issue.

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