Not being paid anything for overtime hours worked during orientation. Is this legal?

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NurseBlaq

1,756 Posts

Glad you spoke up and got clarification before it became an unfavorable situation and/or ill feelings festered over a simple misunderstanding.

Specializes in NICU.

Cant stop smiling and laughing,welcome to the club oh little nurse,you are on orientation,are you not?So they really dont have to pay you overtime just because you are slow.

OT fights are not to be taken alone,you will end up angering the wrong group,and end up in more hot water . There fore when you are finished with orientation you can revisit the topic if you want,but remember all OT must be authorized.Also as an orientee you can be fired for any reason,they do not have to show cause.

Suck this one up,you might like it there and want to stay......

Specializes in Tele/Interventional/Non-Invasive Cardiology.
15 hours ago, Leader25 said:

Cant stop smiling and laughing,welcome to the club oh little nurse,you are on orientation,are you not?So they really dont have to pay you overtime just because you are slow.

OT fights are not to be taken alone,you will end up angering the wrong group,and end up in more hot water . There fore when you are finished with orientation you can revisit the topic if you want,but remember all OT must be authorized.Also as an orientee you can be fired for any reason,they do not have to show cause.

Suck this one up,you might like it there and want to stay......

I’m trying to figure out if this is a troll response or not.

Hoosier_RN, MSN

3,960 Posts

Specializes in Dialysis.
9 minutes ago, CardiacRNLA said:

I’m trying to figure out if this is a troll response or not.

This poster is usually not a troll, but I found this response a little odd

GbabyNurse

10 Posts

16 hours ago, Leader25 said:

Cant stop smiling and laughing,welcome to the club oh little nurse,you are on orientation,are you not?So they really dont have to pay you overtime just because you are slow.

OT fights are not to be taken alone,you will end up angering the wrong group,and end up in more hot water . There fore when you are finished with orientation you can revisit the topic if you want,but remember all OT must be authorized.Also as an orientee you can be fired for any reason,they do not have to show cause.

Suck this one up,you might like it there and want to stay......

Im not sure what you mean by this haha I am an oriented but I get paid as a regular employee with overtime pay.

ComeTogether, LPN

1 Article; 2,178 Posts

Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

are they taking out meal breaks? Many facilities deduct 30 minutes unless you fill out a form that you didn't take one and why.

Ruby Vee, BSN

17 Articles; 14,030 Posts

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
On 7/14/2019 at 9:11 PM, klone said:

This is illegal. I would approach it as, "Hey, I noticed that my timecard says 0700-1930, and my actual clock-out time was 1948. Do you know how that got changed? Over the last 2 weeks, there were about 3-4 hours that don't seem to be accounted for on my timecard." Treat it like it must be some mistake or misunderstanding, and you're just trying to get it cleared up.

It may not actually be illegal, but the OP should definitely ask about it — *ASK*, not accuse. Some hospitals pay their nursing staff on a salaried basis, so you have to stay over at least four hours before you get overtime. It’s a rip-off, but it’s not illegal. Some hospitals don’t pay overtime unless it’s more than an hour (or some pre-determined amount of time) but also don’t squawk if you’re done with report by 6:30 and skip out early. So maybe strictly “illegal” but not something to rock the boat over since presumably you, too, will benefit over the chance to leave early. Some hospitals don’t pay overtime to orienteers because you aren’t adding any value at this point.

It would be wisest to ASK someone before getting riled up.

Specializes in ICU.

My former employer did this garbage for years and no one said anything. Until one day, a traveler noticed her pay was wrong and promptly discussed it with the ER manager, who refused to fix it. So she went down the street to the department of labor and filed a complaint. Long story short: we had to punch in and out for lunch and explain every minute we were there past 1930.

The department of labor route is extreme. In your case, I'd do what others have said and start with an inquiry with your manager.

Dohardthings

90 Posts

Those 4 hours are education. I have never gotten overtime pay for education. It is charged as base pay only. So if I work a 36 hour week and put in an 8 hr education training, no overtime. Also overtime is anything over 80 hrs in a 2 week pay period. Time only for education.

klone, MSN, RN

14,790 Posts

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
37 minutes ago, Dohardthings said:

Those 4 hours are education. I have never gotten overtime pay for education. It is charged as base pay only. So if I work a 36 hour week and put in an 8 hr education training, no overtime. Also overtime is anything over 80 hrs in a 2 week pay period. Time only for education.

Depends entirely on the state’s labor laws how overtime is calculated. In California, anything over 8 hours is OT. In most states, anything over 12 hours in a day is OT, regardless of how many hours you accrue in a week/pay period. In some states anything over 80 in a pay period accrues OT, and in others, it over 40 in a week. And as a subset, it also depends on the individual facility’s pay rules.

If your state requires OT for anything over 40 hours, then it doesn’t matter if it’s worked time or education. If it’s mandatory, then they must pay you OT for anything clocked over 40 hours.

Specializes in ARNP.
On 7/14/2019 at 8:45 PM, GbabyNurse said:

I have recently started my first job as a nurse in an ER. My orientation is around 14 weeks, and I have been (and will be) working full time (40 hrs/ week, 80 hrs/pay period). I went to "accept" my first time card and I noticed ...(snip)

Without knowing your policy...is it possible that your OT is paid separately? One of my friends works for a large U-based hospital where nurses are some weird class between salaried and hourly. They have to punch a time clock, but OT hours are paid every quarter, and payment for those have to be requested or they don't get paid out. Weird?

dbabz

157 Posts

I'm a relatively new nurse myself and I haven't run into this, but, if this happened to me during orientation, I'd just chalk it up to experience and view the extra time as beneficial to me and my education as a nurse. I feel like orientation is very expensive to the hospital and want to earn my keep any way I can.

That said, if this "rounding" happened after orientation, I'd be at HR in a heartbeat.

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