Time cards

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Hello!

I've been working in Baltimore for 5 weeks now. One shift I clocked out at 0741 and my nurse manager changed the time on my time sheet to 0731 so no OT would ensue. She did this because apparently this hospital pays their nurses more, so they are not entitled to their OT. I am not staff nurse and clock in and out so I am confused how this applies to me? Why clock in and out if I am not getting paid for it? Still I am not granted my time. My recruiter has been working with the hospital but still no answers. Does anyone have any insight or previous experiences with this issue? Thanks.

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Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care.

I don't know if she is allowed to change your time card like that or not, but even if you don't get paid overtime, you should still get paid straight time for the time you were working. At my facility we get paid in 15 minute increments, so the difference between 0731 and 0741 wouldn't make any difference. It seems weird that she would cause such a fuss over 10 minutes! I would definitely continue to investigate the situation if I were you...

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Thank you so much. I will continue to do so. At this facility it is 8 minute increments. I agree with you. Even if I don't get OT pay, I should get straight pay. By her changing my time card, it also works against extra time accrued, which would benefit if I had to call in sick or for ER situations....It's so disappointing. Thanks for the reply.

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That's against labor laws generally. Nobody can edit your time without your permission. Some states even require that there is a written record of the edit and your signature before the edit is processed.

I would be raising absolute HELL with my companies customer service department and if it wasn't corrected in a timely manner I would be taking it up with the state board of labor.

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The law in every state is that you must be paid for time worked. There is no way around this and it is fraud to alter work records - it is possible to have criminal prosecution for the person and the employer that falsify records. Call the state labor board and report it, and see if they can help you. In many states, labor boards do not major resources for every complaint and may not help you. In many other states, all they can recover legally is minimum wage, and time and a half minimum wage for overtime (which is so little money as to not be worth it). The contracted rate is a civil concern, not a state one. It can be difficult to sue the hospital as they are not your employer. But it can be done. If they are doing it to you, they may be doing it hospital wide and that can amount to a lot of money to a lot of travelers and staff.

If by chance this is happening in California, there are many law firms there that specialize in recovering lost overtime. Google it and be amazed!

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