termination and pto benefits

[litbitblack]

Hi guys. another question to see what others have experienced with termination. I lost about 170 hours of pto when i was terminated and was told when your terminated you lose it. But...........an RN that was terminated a few months ago was told the same thing and asked about her pto and they allowed her to write a resignation letter to be able to get it. I feel I should be given the same right and if I am not then it should be illegal for them to do that. Has anyone ever experienced the same issues....thanks

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

In MN vacation leave is your property if you are covered by a collective bargaining agreement otherwise it can be forfeited at termination.

This is one of the reasons that I am such a strong supporter of collective bargaining.

[RN1989]

My last job required you to be employed for 18 months continuously. While you could use all the PTO you wanted during that 18 months, if you quit and/or got fired w/in that 18 months you forfeited all your unused PTO.

OUCH! That is a really harsh rule to me. I'm guessing that somewhere along the line they had a lot of turnover and were trying to keep people from leaving.

The problem that I see with this is that the employer gains every time because they probably don't have enough staff to "let" people take vacation time. They want to stop the high turnover without fixing the root cause of the high turnover.

I'm curious, was this place a great place to work so that people didn't mind that 18 month rule?

[cjmjmom]

I once worked a job and lost my PTO time after I resigned. That was when I was young and stupid! Now I have a policy, if I do not call in sick in 4 months I take a mental-health day and call off so I will NEVER lose my earned time again to any employer. There is no incentive for me to have perfect attendance.

[litbitblack, ASN, RN]

I am really sorry you were terminated. If you wish to, would you share what happened? I have not seen anyone not get their time due where I live, but we have unions. I wish the very best for you in your job search.

Basically the facility set me up for failure. The floor I worked on was a 28 bed med-surg unit. The normal staffing for that floor is supposed to be 1 charge 6 nurses and 2 pca's. they normally staffed 1 charge 5 nurses and 1 pca. so the nurses normally had 5 and 6 pts. they would float us people from floors that never had to take that many and then expect them to be able to keep up. The problems were complaints from employees about team work and not getting enough help especially from the charge. press ganey scores were in the toilet. I also had 2 lvns that were shouldn;t have been there. they continually missed orders, overwhelmed with pt load one even had only 2 pts one day and was very overwhelmed. I got a final warning after i gave my password to a couple of nurses 3 months ago when we were getting slammed and management was in the GETTING IT ALL DONE PHASE. The charge nurses were expected to get it all done but management didn' t make sure everyone had the ability to do thier part. So I was helping to get it all done but the nurses didn't have or didn't want to get passwords. well some nurses from another floor (still don't know who) used my sign on to access a nurses records who had passed away to see what happened. THen with all the crap on the floor and the nurses who needed more than I could give them and the float nurses complaining that I didn' t help them(was to busy being a total resource for those lvns) and boom another write up which resulted in termination. The nurse who was terminated a couple of months was told that since she was termnated she would not get her pto but then they recanted and allowed her to send in a written resignation. I think I should be allowed that same option. There was no difference in our cases it was plain and simple. termination = no pto yet they allowed her to resign. I believe I should have legal recourse based on that. texas is an at will employement state so I dont believe there is anything stating i am entitled to it especially since its in the hand book. but she got hers so therefore same situation I should get mine....right?

[RN1989]

IMO if they gave it to her they should give it to you. But it sounds like you are in a unfair fight.

With what has been going on, and the fact that a termination doesn't look good and may harm future work - you might want to consider going public with stuff like this. Journalists are always looking for juicy stories and might be able to help you get your money.

[caliotter3]

I once worked a job and lost my PTO time after I resigned. That was when I was young and stupid! Now I have a policy, if I do not call in sick in 4 months I take a mental-health day and call off so I will NEVER lose my earned time again to any employer. There is no incentive for me to have perfect attendance.

Excellent way of dealing with the subject of PTO. Since my employers don't believe in paying for holidays as well as overtime, at my client's suggestion, I took off for the 4th of July. I've decided that on occasion I will be taking a mental health day. Most assuredly these mental health days will be on federal holidays for which I wouldn't have been paid holiday pay. Goes along with avoiding noncompensated overtime.

[GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN]

I would just check with your HR dept, should be cut and dry, but if the other nurse shouldn't have gotten it but did, so should you. Then I would file a grievance, that's a good months pay, don't let it slide.