Is your manager not paying when you work through your break?

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Our local hospital, who our hospice is associated with, just got into A LOT of trouble recently. Apparently, a new employee put in no lunch break slips and her manager didn't pay her for them. (Guess the new girl didn't get the memo that it is just expected in the nursing field that you don't get a lunch break:rolleyes:) Anyway, new employee turned the institution over to U.S. Dept of Labor:yeah: After a quick investigation the hospital has come around and decided it might be best to follow the law. They have even set up a mandatory training program on the computor to inform all employees that if they don't have 20 minutes of UNINTERRUPTED lunch break, they are to be paid.

Break? What break?

:banghead:

I say the same thing!

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In California getting paid to work through is not enough, the law is that if your lunch is 30 minutes and you miss some or all of it you get paid for a full 60 minutes. And up to 1 hour paid for missed rest breaks of 10 min. Whether you miss 1 or 2 ten min breaks you only get paid for 1 hour. This is sort of a penalty for the hospital and hopefully they will get the staff so breaks appropriately taken.

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Specializes in ED.

Where I work, if you do not take your lunch, you charge for that 30 min and get paid for working through lunch. it is in the union contract and nurses need to fight for fair pay if they work through lunch break. To not demand this pay is just foolish. I work in a busy ED and almost every RN takes their lunch (sitting in the break room, not working) daily. on the days we do not take lunch, it is definately noted in our timecard and we get pay for that lunch time.

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Specializes in Adult Acute Care Medicine.

Changing the subject...but TIMECARDS?

I am a relatively new nurse...my hospital does not have timecards for nurses....I am suprised to hear this! Aren't we professionals? How many professionals use timecards?

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Specializes in L&D, medsurg,hospice,sub-acute.

Well, we are supposed to turn in a "no Lunch" slip, so our pay can be adjusted if we don't get a break...BUT..it must be approved by the supervisor or manager---and if you work nights, the one who approves or disapproves wasn't even present...and then, if their budget gets too tight, and you have taken too many 'no lunches'--ie overtime...you get in trouble for 'poor time management'-- justifying our actions to a non-nurse, or someone who wasn't there gets frustrating--feels demeaning

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Specializes in L&D, medsurg,hospice,sub-acute.
Changing the subject...but TIMECARDS?

I am a relatively new nurse...my hospital does not have timecards for nurses....I am suprised to hear this! Aren't we professionals? How many professionals use timecards?

We use our ID's as punch cards..better than the last place I worked where the unit secretary decided what time you came in and put it in the computer--less professional than a punch card

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.
Well, we are supposed to turn in a "no Lunch" slip, so our pay can be adjusted if we don't get a break...BUT..it must be approved by the supervisor or manager---and if you work nights, the one who approves or disapproves wasn't even present...and then, if their budget gets too tight, and you have taken too many 'no lunches'--ie overtime...you get in trouble for 'poor time management'-- justifying our actions to a non-nurse, or someone who wasn't there gets frustrating--feels demeaning

Yeah... I guess it is poor time management when you keep having administration demand you go to the floor during your lunch to take care of issues, not even nursing-related, like a phone call from a family member asking where Mom's pink pants went off to?

The nurse in that case doesn't need to work on "time management" so much as "laying low.":D

And then, what if you're on evenings or nights, when staffing is often inadequate to allow time, let alone coverage, for breaks? You can either get dinged for poor time management or patient abandonment, which is a very serious accusation.

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.

Here is what the FSLA (Fair Standards Labor Act) has to say about this issue:

29 CFR 785.19 - Meal.

Section Number: 785.19

Section Name: Meal.

The employee is not relieved if he is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. For example, an office employee who is required to eat at his

desk or a factory worker who is required to be at his machine is working while eating. (Culkin v. Glenn L. Martin, Nebraska Co., 97 F. Supp. 661)

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.19.htm

As long as we are on the subject of compensation, I would also like to mention that my employer is expecting me to carry a pager for an entire month with NO compensation. Here is what the FSLA says about this:

29 CFR 785.22 - Duty of 24 hours or more.

Section Number: 785.22

Section Name: Duty of 24 hour or more

(a) General. Where an employee is required to be on duty for 24 hours or more, the employer and the employee may agree to exclude bona fide meal periods and a bona fide regularly scheduled sleeping period of not more than 8 hours from hours worked, provided adequate sleeping facilities are furnished by the employer and the employee can usually enjoy an uninterrupted night's sleep. If sleeping period is of more than

8 hours, only 8 hours will be credited. Where no expressed or implied agreement to the contrary is present, the 8 hours of sleeping time and lunch periods constitute hours worked.

(b) Interruptions of sleep. If the sleeping period is interrupted by a call to duty, the interruption must be counted as hours worked. If the period is interrupted to such an extent that the employee cannot get a reasonable night's sleep, the entire period must be counted. For enforcement purposes, the Divisons have adopted the rule that if the

employee cannot get at least 5 hours' sleep during the scheduled period

the entire time is working time.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.22.htm

I have always received call pay in the past, and I don't know what makes them think they can get away with this.

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Specializes in ED.
Changing the subject...but TIMECARDS?

I am a relatively new nurse...my hospital does not have timecards for nurses....I am suprised to hear this! Aren't we professionals? How many professionals use timecards?

I guess that was the wrong term, we use our ID to punch in and out, but pretty much the same idea as a timecard, just electronic. What do you use to record your hours?? i'm assuming you record your time somehow to get paid for the hours you work. that is a time card in essence. Yes we are professionals but we do get paid by the hour (which may professionals get paid a salary and they do not need a timecard). If you have a job that gets paid by the hour you must have a way to record your hours, that is a time card or a time recording system.

We do have to use the online timekeeper to select "no lunch break" as this is the way they record this. I think there is a slip we can fill out as well. We also have paper time record slips if we miss a punch in or out.

I'm curious as to what you think nurses use to record their time. What do you use in your hospital, are you salaried?

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Specializes in Adult Acute Care Medicine.

Nurses at my hospital are salary. It is assumed that we arrive on time and a half an hour lunch. If we stay over there is a place to write the extra time in.

The down side is that it is assumed we will actually take our breaks. I have worked that half hour for free many times...but I am still new and learning time management.

We also have "lunch buddies" and are supposed to hand off our pagers...but some days are simply too busy to use this system.

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Specializes in L&D, medsurg,hospice,sub-acute.
Nurses at my hospital are salary. It is assumed that we arrive on time and a half an hour lunch. If we stay over there is a place to write the extra time in.

The down side is that it is assumed we will actually take our breaks. I have worked that half hour for free many times...but I am still new and learning time management.

We also have "lunch buddies" and are supposed to hand off our pagers...but some days are simply too busy to use this system.

Don't work any time for free!!! That kind of thinking allows management to take advantage of nursing as a whole..and they should understand, and allow newer nurses to need more time--needing more time as a new nurse is not a bad comment on you, it is a professional learning thing that is to be expected...and supported...if it is not supported (which I have seen) then new nurses rush, learn less, and get burn out faster because they feel overwhelmed...also not good for nursing as a profession

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I am not going to dis my hospital, but yeah, the breaks are non existant and the lunch is usually grabbed behind the nursing station. Most of our nurses are pretty supportive of one another and stay in the back room in case there is a problem. Can't remember the last time I had an uninterrupted lunch. I could walk off to the lounge, but appreciate the other nurses when they are there for a quick question when a doc shows up or things go bad. What I do object to is a nurse leaving the unit for longer than the allotted time and strolling back in asking did you do that check, what about the accu check, etc. Consideration of others goes a long way in my book.

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