Is this legal? What can we do?

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I know that I have been ranting a lot lately about the new owners of my facility. Today, they posted a memo that says that from now on that employees were not going to be paid for our 30 minute lunch. To get benefits in our facility you have to work 38 hours a week. Most of us are barely getting in forty hours now that they have eliminated "all" overtime. they have gotten so severe that I got a verbal warning today for clocking out at 10:09pm instead of 10:00. The schedule clerk has been scheduling three CNAs on AB unit and three CNAs on C unit. They have begun sending the third CNA home at eight instead of ten like we had been scheduled. These two things knock the aides down from a forty hour work week to a 35.5 hour work week. To get benefits at the facility you work a 38 hour week. They are rotating the short shifts between the unit CNAs. We just figured it out tonight that no one is going to be eligible for health insurance, retirement, vacations, or sick time :angryfire. To me this just seems wrong. The facility is in debt but now "everyone" is threatening to quit. I love my residents but I will not work in a facility with no staff. I will head out the door with the rest of the staff. What can we do? Some people depend on these benefits.

:p you are under the old policy until they give you a formal inservice about the new policy. if it is a new company they can go in and fire every employee there with no virtually no consequences. you should think more of yourself then to allow anyone to treat you the way you are being treated there. call the health department and report the days that you have been working short. i agree with the person that advised you to unionize. you can also be diplomatic and fill out a grievance form (make a copy for yourself) and go in and talk to the admistrator and ask that your write up be removed based on the fact you were in the middle of res. care and would have potentially endangered a res. by stopping in the middle and clocking out. point out any cna's that may have been late that day and tell the administrator that they were the ones who caused the problem and should be written up not you.
the problem is we have no idea what any of the new managements policies are. they have given no one policy manuals and we had been operating under the old manual but now they are switching to their policies. it would be nice to know before they start writing people up. i got the verbal warning that comes before a right-up but it still goes in my employee file. my best friend is going around to the other facilities in the area and she said she would pick me up applications wherever she went. i have been there and worked short, i have been the only cna for 40 residents some nights, i hate it and do not wish to do it again any time soon. they have been having inservices every friday, i think that these would be good issues to raise today at the inservice. it could get ugly, cover me, i'm going in! :) lol!
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The health insurance thing is defiantely illegal. There is a federal law that mandates any employee that works more than 20 hours per week is to be offered health insurance. I can't recall the name of the law, but you could do an online search. Good luck!!

The clincher on this law is that insurance must be offered. Not paid for whole or in part by the empolyer. In this instance I would bet the employees who do not make full time can still pay for their insurance themselves. The institution is not breaking the law with this. Insurance is offered. It's not their problem nobody can afford it!

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The Cna S In Our Facility Do Not Get An 8 Hour Day., They Are Only Given 7.5 Even If They Were Unable To Get A Break D/t Busy Day...i Know That It Is Unfair But You Can Not Speak Up Because You Are Expected To Enforce "company Policy" Even If You Have Never Seen A Copy Of Said Policy....the Cna S Go From Facility To Facility Because The Pay Is The Same And The Benefits (none) Are The Same We Have A Charity Hosp In Town Or These People And Their Children Would Have No Health Care At All...life Can Be Rough...unless They Have A Lot Of Family Support They Are In A Rut They Cannot Get Out We Could Never Run Our Place W/o Them And They Are So Unappreciated...not Just The Aids But The Dietary Workers Also Get A Raw Deal..they Come In For Breakfast And Have To Clock Out For Two Hours B/4 Lunch Is To Be Cooked....

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In order to get the correct information call the Labor Board. In California no one gets paid for their 30 minute break. In California a full time employee is defined in the employee handbook, usually one who works on an average of about 40 hours a week (not counting 30 minute break times).

It's a fact of life most nursing homes have to make cutbacks in order to survive financially. If they cannot make money then they will be out of business and things will get worse and people will loose their jobs altogether. It does screw up the nursing hours not to mention demonstrates a lack of responsibility when employees do not clock in & out on time.

When census is low, and most of the patients are on medicaid it is hard for the nursing homes to make money.

Make up your mind what it is you want from a job if it is full time hours and benefits, then dont accept a position unless that is offered to U.

If I was in your situation I would look into the companies policy on write ups, usually the policy requires a supervisor to give you a verbal warning first. If someone violated the policy you could put a formal grievance in writing and see if the write up could be removed from your record.

Sounds like your unhappy and would be happier working for a facility that had the hours, benefit and a better attitude towards the staff.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!:uhoh3:

You do not get paid for taking a lunch break, you are supposed to get the time off form working, HOWEVER, it is a federal law that they have give you the lunch break, if they don't, then you should be given compensation for it.

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Call the state and let them know you are a CNA assigned to 40 patients. Hopefully, the state will make an investigation. Perhaps if the state steps in they will quit sending CNA's home early. Good luck.

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Call the state and let them know you are a CNA assigned to 40 patients. Hopefully, the state will make an investigation. Perhaps if the state steps in they will quit sending CNA's home early. Good luck.

That will only work if the institution is not given several weeks notice of intent to visit.

I have seen staffing ratios go up, walls painted, beds and other equipment repaired AFTER they got the notice that the state was scheduled for an unscheduled visit.

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Most facilities can guess the approximate time the rountine annual survey will be and try to make preperations for it in advance. But in California if a complaint is called in :coollook: the health department has 24 hours in seriouse cases and a few days to go in and do an unannounced investigation. If the complaint concerned a past time period like something that happened before the day they visit or a month ago it does not matter what the facility looks like on that day, if they find evidence using sign in sheets and time cards that a facility is not meeting the staffing ratio they facility will receive a citation.

That will only work if the institution is not given several weeks notice of intent to visit.

I have seen staffing ratios go up, walls painted, beds and other equipment repaired AFTER they got the notice that the state was scheduled for an unscheduled visit.

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Specializes in ICU, CCU,Wound Care,LTC, Hospice, MDS.

Today, they posted a memo that says that from now on that employees were not going to be paid for our 30 minute lunch.

I have never worked anywhere that actually pays you for lunch time. If you work days 6-2, you actually start at 5:45 and leave at 2:15. The fifteen minutes before and after is report time. You are paid eight hours but are actually there eight and a half.I've worked many places in three states.

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Today, they posted a memo that says that from now on that employees were not going to be paid for our 30 minute lunch.

I have never worked anywhere that actually pays you for lunch time. If you work days 6-2, you actually start at 5:45 and leave at 2:15. The fifteen minutes before and after is report time. You are paid eight hours but are actually there eight and a half.I've worked many places in three states.

I have also never worked where they pay for your lunch time, and I too have worked in many states (Oh, Fl, SC, Ga, Ky, Al); however, I do know people who were on the clock for exactly 8 hours and were afforded a lunch break. I was always kind of jelous (hehehe) because in my yrs I have always (except in home care) been on the clock the extra 1/2 hour and didn't have time for a lunch break!

Most of these indivuiduals on the clock for 8 that I have known are CNAs. They come in the door, drop their personal stuff and hit the pt rooms. No report, nothing. I always felt they needed report as much as the nursing staff. Particularly when it comes to reddened areas that could so easily mean an impending ulcer! Every shift seems to be the first sighting, so sad...tx is delayed becasue each shift thinks it's the first sighting and it's not followed through as it should be... Lack of communication! Of course the nurse does need to be told and very often the CNAs will allow the next shift to do it. No insult to CNAs here, it's just that without a time set aside for report...it just doesn't happen.

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Federal law requires breaks and lunch-time unless they are waived by the employee by prior arrangement. (wanting to go home early). They can not legally do that.

An anonymous call to the labor board always helps.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

How does a person make an anonymous call? I'm sure that no matter where I call from or what type of phone I use, it can be traced. But I would like to make an anonymous call or two.......

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

In Massachusetts, there is NO law that says you have to be paid for your lunch break and I'm pretty sure that health insurance is up to the company. My company started offering health insurance for people working 24 hours a week. We still get paid for our lunch break (not that we ever take one) but the union was recently voted in and that might be one of the first things on the bargaining table.

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Insurance??? Benefits??? What are those! I've worked at the same facility for 4 years now, and they don't even OFFER health insurance. Our only "benefit" is a weeks paid vacation. (and this is a "for profit" company). Also, our facility has "QA" meetings each morning, where those unlucky employees who had to call in sick, etc. and were unable to work - these people are forced to stand before all the department heads and give their explanation of why they had to miss work. If they refuse to tell the group why they had to miss work, then they are "unexused". Period. :angryfire I got them good, tho. Last time I missed work was due to a stomach virus. Told them ALLLLL about it, in great detail that morning. *heh-heh* :rotfl:

I had thought that all employers had to offer health insurance if they employed over a certain number of people. And we're so short staffed right now, it's pathetic.

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