Required to pay for my own training?

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Specializes in geriatrics, dementia, ortho.

Hi CNA's, I'm hoping one or two of you can help me shed some light on a situation I'm having with the facility I work at. Since I'm a NAR, not a NAC/CNA I haven't had as much training. This means that within 3 months of hire at a facility I have to complete Fundamentals of Caregiving training. I was told this when I was hired at my facility, and was told back then that I wouldn't have to pay for the training course itself.

Now that the date is coming up, I'm being told that not only must I pay for the cost of the traning (through an outside company, it's not offered in-house) but I won't be paid for my time attending the class either. :devil:

With lost wages plus the cost of the training, it adds up to be almost a week's pay for me. Yikes!

Anyone been through this? Know if it's legal? I have left a voicemail with my state's DOL office trying to get more help, but if it turns out that this is above-board, I think I may leave this job. Agree? Disagree?

Help!

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Check with your state's BON and CNA registry. I know in my state, the facility MUST pay for your CNA training if they hired you as just an NA and you weren't enrolled in a CNA course at the time of hire. Well, I take that back. We (in my state) do have to pay for the training, but the facility must reimburse us the total cost of the course.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.

I heard its a federal law that your first job must reimburse you once you become a CNA. Was I reimbursed for my training? No. The company gave me a whole bunch of gobbledy goop about they only offer reimbursement for employees who work full-time there & even then they only pay half of the cost. Maybe that's your company's policy too. Sorry,I know its awful but that's how a lot of them operate :(

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Specializes in geriatrics, dementia, ortho.

Thanks for the input, ladies. I heard back from the DOL & they said since this is a required training (it's not CNA cert training, it's something else we have to do here) they MUST pay me for the hours I am in this class. The rules about tuition reimbursement are a little more gray, and it seems they can deduct the cost of the course from my pay unless doing so drops me below the federal min. wage for that week.

So this is great news for me! :) I emailed my DON explaining it to her and am anticipating her being angry, but hoping it doesn't come down to her looking for a way to fire me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

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Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.

Good luck! I hope things work out for you :)

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Be careful in the future. And don't go broadcasting this at work. Bosses tend to not like it when they lose one once in awhile.

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