Supervisor Pay Roll Fraud - Help Me!!!

[CanadianORNurse]

Hi Everyone,

I have a dilemma in my nursing unit that I need your advice about. I work in the operating room of a rural hospital in central Ontario, Canada. We have 15 RN staff members and 1 RPN. Our Manager is very new to us (since January 2010) and she is a Respiratory Tech, with no knowledge of perioperative nursing. We have had high hopes for her since our last Manager was very negative and confrontational. At first she seemed very open to our coming to her with our problems. "Working as a team" was high on her stated list of attributes. So we all felt secure going to her to talk about an ongoing problem we have experienced in our unit. Our Team Leader, an experienced OR Registered Nurse, has for many years taken advantage of her position and left early from her shifts. She regularly leaves a half hour before her shift is supposed to end. She has also many times signed in for overtime even when she was no where on hospital property. She has even signed in for working on Statuatory Holidays ie: Easter, and gotten paid 7.5 hours at time and a half. She was not working that day, not even in town, apparently. Please understand that this has been going on for a very long time, but we were never able to prove anything, so did not bring it up with management. She would often take days off in overtime, even though she never took call and did not earn overtime pay. Recently our payroll department has changed the way we submit our pay sheets and now we do it every 2 weeks, instead of daily. The Team Leader used to take the daily sheets to payroll, so could add anything to her pay slip before she handed it in. We have now seen this Team Leaders 2 week pay slip and it has shown many discrepencies in hours requested to be paid and actual hours worked. This nurse has been frauding the hospital of potentially thousands of dollars over the years and now we have proof. We made a graph of her stated hours and what we saw as her actual hours along with witnesses names to her not being there. We gave this to Human Resources and the new Manager under the impression that it would be handled professionally and discretely. This Manager promptly ran to the Team Leader with our complaints. As you can imagine, all hell broke loose. The Team Leader is still working, barely speaks to anyone, is frequently found crying in the bathroom and has made our work life very unbearable. Two weeks have passed since we spoke with HR and the Manager about this issue. HR has done nothing and our Manager has not spoken to any of us about it and is often seen speaking in whispers behind closed doors with the Team Leader. She has apparently completely taken her side. As far as we can see, nothing has been done about it. It has been swept under the carpet. We are very disappointed with our new Manager. I would like to know from you all, what should we do next?

[oncrnpa]

Please investigate your need to be involved in this situation beyond bringing it to your superior and HR's attention. If you are not a representitive of HR or in the direct management of this individual you are not entitled to be involved in this individuals disciplinary action. While the situation has created an awkwardness at your workplace please turn your attention to your own actions and the work that you were hired to do. We as nurses need to reduce the drama in the workplace it benefits no one.

[SAHMStudent]

As a student, I do not yet have the experience of working in a hospital to be very specific. But as a former professional, and a manager, I can say what I would do.

Make sure that you have followed company policy; chain of command notification, followed SOPs, documented thoroughly the problem and steps taken to correct the problem, followed company policy for whistle-blowing.

To CYA; dates and times of conversations with all parties involved, document any percieved retaliatory behavior from higher-ups or peers, know the law regarding whistle-blowing.

I am sorry that you have to deal with this. Is the whole staff on board with outing this womans theft? Or is it one or two people? That may contribute to a hostile environment- if people are taking sides.

Also, I didn't see anywhere in your post whether you had confronted the nurse leader who was padding her time sheet. That may be an issue if your company asks you to go to the next up first. Many companies make notifying the person in question part of their policy in chain of command for resolution.

[CanadianORNurse]

thank you for your responses. while we do not wish to be involved in this individuals disciplinary action, we do wish to have some kind of a response to our complaints. and to answer sahmstudent's question, yes, all 16 staff members are on board. we did not go to this individual first because she is a very emotional personality and has in the past been very hostile (read bullying behaviour) to anyone who questions anything she does.

[leslie :-D]

if you have the support of all your coworkers, i'd bring this up to the DON...

putting all details in writing, having all coworkers sign, and submitting it.

you will also need to provide your 'proof'.

i think it's total nonsense to look the other way when fraud or other illegal behaviors are occuring.

of course it's a highly uncomfortable and awkward situation, but it is contributes to an extremely hostile and unfair work environment.

i would not do this however, unless i had the support of all colleagues who know the truth.

if taken seriously, there will likely be an investigation, so you folks need to buck up and prepare for some upheaval.

wishing you all, the very best.

leslie

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Instead of going to the DON, maybe it is best to assume that the managers have dealt with the issue, perhaps deductions are being taken from the teamleaders paycheques to make up for the overpayments, you will never know because the matter will be kept confidential as required by labour laws.

Definitely stick together and put in writing any future incidences of bullying, harassing, demeaning or other threatening behaviours by the team leader, sign, witness and make copies of the groups complaints before submitting them.

dishes

[RNdiscipulus]

this is a very interesting thread...

[Ahhphoey]

Instead of going to the DON, maybe it is best to assume that the managers have dealt with the issue, perhaps deductions are being taken from the teamleaders paycheques to make up for the overpayments, you will never know because the matter will be kept confidential as required by labour laws.

dishes

I was thinking the same thing. The issue may have been addressed but needs to remain confidential. I know its hard to see this person at work everyday as if nothing ever came of your complaints, but just stick to your guns and continue to document if the behavior continues. Depending on your employer, what she has done may not be grounds for immediate termination, so there is a good chance that she has been disciplined. I would be leery about your new manager being seen whispering behind closed doors with the team leader, but just be patient and see what happens. Good luck!

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

I was thinking the same thing. The issue may have been addressed but needs to remain confidential. I know its hard to see this person at work everyday as if nothing ever came of your complaints, but just stick to your guns and continue to document if the behavior continues. Depending on your employer, what she has done may not be grounds for immediate termination, so there is a good chance that she has been disciplined. I would be leery about your new manager being seen whispering behind closed doors with the team leader, but just be patient and see what happens. Good luck!

Agreed. As long as it doesn't happen again (and most likely it won't) then let it go and don't worry about it. If it does continue to happen then perhaps it would be better for you as a group to make an appointment with the superiors (chief operating officer, or Human resources manager)

[RNandRRT]

Here in the U.S. there are hotlines you can call for "compliance" issues related to your employer and fraud.

Any kind of fraud.

Good luck.

[Ruthiegal]

You reported what you all witnessed, now I think it's time to step back and worry more about your care of patients and less about what is being done to this person.... we are not a judge and jury....