Nurses, Will you work OT for straight pay?

klondike · Aug 29, 2004

I will not work OT for straight pay either.
I love how, the first time I heard about this "law" was the day it was passed. WTF! This should have been known a long time ago when we could have rallied and tried to stop this.
Nurses make up the largest group of workers, yet our voices are not heard. WE need to support our own and VOTE and let our voices and opinions be heard. If we would stick together, there would be no stopping us.

An unconfirmed rumor has is that a couple of senators in DC are going to propose legislation that would maintain OT for some professional workers, nurses included. Wouldn't it be great if this becomes a nonissue. Your right, nurses need to be heard (and not just herded.) I wouldn't want to us abuse our potential power but it is about time we stood up and were counted. What an incredible block vote we and our coworkers could be. We could truly effect patient care. Not just on the job but through our votes. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and start joining some professional organizations. Talk is cheap as they say. I'm open to suggestions. Which organizations do you think have the potential to be the most effective?

Brian, ASN, RN · Sep 2, 2004

Hi everyone, I just added a poll to this question. Please take a second and cast your vote, so we can get quick stats. Thanks

kenmill · Sep 3, 2004

If I was not getting paid overtime pay for working extra hours, then it would be a cold day in hell for me to work one second more than I am scheduled. It will be interesting to see how the hospitals in my area will handle this problem. There are about 12 hospitals within 30 minutes of my home, they are all experiencing the nursing shortage. We don't have to just sit back and take what ever is thrown at us. As for me, if my hosp. takes away ovetime pay (we also get TIP pay which is an additional $10.00 per hour on top of OT), then I will start sending out the stack of resumes that are already addressed and ready to go.

edrnmike · Sep 3, 2004

No Way! 12 hours is enough let alone more hours or another day away from loved ones or some relaxing activity. They get enough of me while I work regular hours

SandraCVRN · Sep 3, 2004

One more thing, the individual hospitals are not able to control if they pay overtime or not. It's federal regulations so every hospital cannot pay overtime.

Anyone can pay more than what the law requires, they just can't pay less. My facility put out a statement saying our OT rules are not changing.

Good darn thing since no one would work OT without the OT pay, LOL

CEN35 · Sep 3, 2004

It's easy for me to answer yes. I thought about this issue. While I certainly would speak up against the isse, I dont think I wold leave. The new law doesn't cover "ON Call", it doesn't cover all proffesions either. It was geared towards the white collar proffesions.

Are nurses a white colloar or blue collar proffesion???????

In any case our facility already has posted (1 day after the new law change), that this will NOT affect our facilities.

:-)

RedBait · Sep 3, 2004

I understand your point. But, a HR can not just "reclassify" you without consulting you first. That is a law. You can not be taken down in pay or told one day "Oh, By the way you are salary now." Those are illegal. You can have it offered and decline. Therefore giving them a reason to fire you. But, again as I have said before nurse's were not protected under the old rules. A hospital or doctor could have offered you a salary at anytime and stripped you of overtime pay under the old rules. There was no provision that protected nurses. As far as I can see it will affect a whole bunch of workers. But, as with others under the old rules. These are just a GUIDELINE. That means business do not have to strip you because you are "exempt" Only thing it does guarantee is if you make below the poverty line you will be protected. A hospital still has final say so in whether to pay it to nurses or not. Will some strip you? More then likely. Will all do it? No, to many nurses now a days have a BSN. This means they can go work in almost any field they want to with that BSN. As far as I can see there is a bunch of worrying and nothing to really suggest that this is going to happen. As for the other comments about George Bush. This was pushed by Bush but last I checked pasted by congress. If you want to blame someone politically then call your senators and congressmen they passed it! Bush bashing is so common now without a basis for it besides personal beliefs. So lets keep the politics out of this and discuss the facts of the overtime rules.

Don't forget the "supervisory" part of this reg (it is not legislation, it is regulation and was not voted on by Congress or anybody else)...if you can be described as doing even a tiny bit of supervision...do you work with LPN's and take orders for them and push their IV push meds? do you work with NA's or CNA's or nurse extenders? They work under your license and you, therefore, supervise them. Exempt!! Not only is there no time and a half for OT, there is no pay at all (I hope whole shifts will be seen differently).Your employer can say, as they now do to salaried employees like your head nurse, if you can't complete your work in your scheduled 8 or 12 hours, then no pay for the unscheduled extra time. I work for the Dept of Defense who has independently adopted this regulation. We'll see what it means to me.

Your employer doesn't have to declare you salaried or change your status, the definitions of hourly and salaried have been changed and your status may already be different.

I think we get the government officials we deserve and they govern us as we demand. Our mistake so far was to not pay attention, think this couldn't effect us, and not to make our opinions known to our elected officials who might be considering legislation to redefine salary and hourly more in our favor. We are a very quiet, very large group of voters. We could have more power, but no one will give it to us, we must take it. Get educated, speak up, vote!

barefootlady, ADN, RN · Sep 3, 2004

NO!!!! no OT pay no OT work.

xxyunzxx · Sep 4, 2004

If you currently work OT for time and one half pay will you continue to work the hours for straight pay? What do you think of the new OT legislation and how it will effect nursing? What do you think of the exemptions for male dominated professions? ie, Police officers, firefighters and EMTs.

I definitely would not work for straight time. We already work way too hard, if we give in on this what's next salary reduction? I really don't see how it can stick though with the nursing shortage. Honestly, people would just leave nursing all together. We need to know we are appreciated and taking away our money that we need to provide for our families is not going to demonstrate this and that's why I would walk personally. My boss does'nt feel it will ever affect us in San Diego though so i"m not real worried just concerned at this point for my fellow nurses everywhere else.:uhoh21:

marymary · Sep 4, 2004

If you currently work OT for time and one half pay will you continue to work the hours for straight pay? What do you think of the new OT legislation and how it will effect nursing? What do you think of the exemptions for male dominated professions? ie, Police officers, firefighters and EMTs.

What are you nuts? No and again I say no I will not work OT for straight pay. I will go straight to an agency and get paid.

No nurse has to work for straight pay (at least in America). We work too hard to be paid less. What is apt to happen is a critical shortage of nurses, if they think that there is a shortage now, just wait. I do not even think that foreign nurses will do it.

And as far as the exemptions, we allow the males to dictate to us a lot in this country, even though we represent the majority of the population. How long will it continue?

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Sep 4, 2004

As I sit here and look at my screen, I can't believe that 5 people have said "yes" to this.

klondike · Sep 4, 2004

As I sit here and look at my screen, I can't believe that 5 people have said "yes" to this.[/quote
Well, maybe they're already salaried and do work > 40 for straight time. That's why I originally asked the question. It wasn't just rhetorical. I find it puzzling too. I'd be interested in the views of nurses who have answered yes. I also wonder if more nurses are concerned about the idea that legislation to protect certain professions from the OT exemption rule would appear to have a gender bias. Firefighters, police officers, EMTs, these are all male dominated postions. This entire issue will be played out in the months and years to come. The view that really amazes me is the one expressed by a few that this is a non-issue. That somehow if we sit back and do nothing, nothing will happen. Even the growing nurse shortage will not protect us if we do nothing.