Ok, so I just graduated nursing school then passed the NCLEX... I got hired over the phone with a "home health agency" although I actually am a private duty nurse doing 8-12 hour shifts. The service is paid for by medicaid. Medicaid pays my company and then the company pays me. I clock in and out using the clients mothers phone (my client is pediatric).
On 2 separate instances (once in August and once in September) the clients phone was unavailable, so as instructed by my supervisors, I called management, with the fathers phone, and they were supposed to clock me out. In BOTH cases the managers never clocked me out and I received a call from the office the following mornings wanting to know why I had not clocked out. I never got paid for these two days. I spoke with the owner of the company numerous times and she insisted they would be on my next paycheck. But paycheck after paycheck came and the hours were never added.
Then, the owner calls me just last week and tells me she will not be paying me for those two days as she had just found out I have been taking a lunch break. I was told by the woman who hired me, the pt's mother and the nurse who has been working for this company that lunch breaks were allowed. There is NOTHING in my contract that says we are not allowed a lunch and I have not even taken a lunch everyday. I might get to take a lunch 2 days out of 5 that I work. I spoke with the medicaid case manager about it and she said the company was paid for all of my days, including the two where the office had to manually enter my departure time the next day. The owner of the company said that the only way she will pay me for the two days is if she goes back from my start day (over 6 months ago) and takes 1 hour lunch out for every day... Which would make me owe her money!!!!
So just to summarize, the company was paid during every lunch I took, and was also paid for the two days where my managers did not clock me out, but I was not paid for the two days because "of the lunches" i have taken. I am no longer taking lunches now that I know that it is not allowed, but I was counting on that money and I feel its not fair that the company was paid for doing nothing while I am being shorted for almost 25 hours of work! I am still a new nurse, this is my first nursing job and I just feel like it isnt right.
They have hired 7 nurses total for this case and I am the only nurse who has stuck with it. The rest of the nurses quit due to pay issues as well, but this has been my first negative experience. I have had several people tell me they are not allowed to just take my pay like that. Does anyone know legally or from any aspect how all this works?
