Nursing experience

Fiona59 · May 8, 2015

Look at your union contract. Usually you have to work the equivalent of one year's worth of full time hours for the pay increase.

dishes, BSN, RN · May 9, 2015

1,500 hours = 1 year for salary increments.

ien.P · May 10, 2015

Thanks dishes to confirm. I read about this in ONA agreement. I have worked overtime at my previous job (more than 75 hours/ pay period), Does employer count overtime hours as working experience?

dishes, BSN, RN · May 10, 2015

The overtime counts if it is with one continuos employer, I am not sure about converting it from one employer to another. Are you trying to determine your starting pay rate based on your years of experience?

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 10, 2015

Generally speaking when determining where to place a person on the wage scale it will be based on the equivalent to full time (EFT or FTE depending on where you're from) the person's position is. Your Record of Employment or letter of portability will tell the HR department how many hours you've worked for your previous employer. And that's what they use to determine placement on the wage scale. Overtime will count.

ien.P · May 10, 2015

Yeah I am trying to find out the starting pay based on experience. The reason I asked because I have 2years 7 mon of experience and if it is counted as hours it would be 3 yrs and with overtime it would be even more.

dishes, BSN, RN · May 10, 2015

Did your previous employer list your total hours worked on your record of employment?

ien.P · May 11, 2015

My employer has given me experience letter having hours per pay period.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 11, 2015

Your Record of Employment is the gold standard document. Some employers will accept Letters of Portability of Hours. What the actual step on the scale would work out to be will depend on what is considered to be annual hours of work. It's different in every province and when you're hired by a non-union facility it will be whatever the employer chooses it to be. The collective agreement in place where you're going to work will have an article in it outlining annual hours of work as well as the number of hours required for moving up to the next step. For example, in Manitoba a full time nurse moves up a step on the anniversary of employment and part time nurses after 1343 hours worked OR one year, whichever is later. In Alberta, part time nurses must work 1920.75 hours before moving up the first increment and 1711.5 hours for each subsequent increment. These are regular, actual hours worked. The Manitoba collective agreement spells out clearly how hours worked for another employer with appropriate documentation are considered for placement on the wage scale as found on page 73, Article 3803. Alberta's is Article 27.01, on page 58 and states, "All experience satisfactory to the Employer shall be recognized on a one-for-one basis, up to the top increment in the salary scale."

What does that mean in real terms? Let's say I have a 0.7 FTE position for 7 years in Manitoba. Manitoba has 6 steps on their pay scale. Using the formula above, with full time hours being 2015 per year: 2015 x 0.7 = 1410.5 annual hours worked - more than enough to move up a rung. By the end of 5 years of employment (7052.5 hours), I am now at the top of Manitoba's scale. But if I move to Alberta, those hours will be looked at quite differently. Alberta has 9 steps. 7 years of 0.7 hours = 9873.5 hours. So these hours would place me at step 5 with 1106.75 hours out of 1920.75 (new employee, remember) toward the next step. 814 hours is about 75 twelve hour shifts, or about 5 1/2 months before the next increment. To reach the 9th rung, I would have to work 5134.5 hours, or 3 years and 8 months more.

See if you can find an online copy of the collective agreement you'll be working under and look up "recognition of previous experience", "increments" and "hours of work" to see what your previous experience will be worth.

ien.P · May 14, 2015

Thank you everyone for your response. One last question is there any specific timeline to claim for your experience. Since I already started working on the salary that HR determined.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 15, 2015

I'm not sure how the HR department where you are will handle receiving a late letter of portability/ROE. Those are usually expected at the time you do your initial orientation to the facility - along with a copy of your practice permit, CPR certification and criminal records check. I advise you to speak to someone in HR and ask them all your questions. They're the ones who are going to say yes or no.