VA Overtime Pay

Anything over 80 hours per two week pay period is considered overtime which according to the hours you posted you do not qualify for.

Why is this different for the VA? When I worked in the private sector, I worked 36/48 and the 8 hours was OT so therefore any hours worked over 40 PER WEEK regardless of pay period was considered OT. As far as I know, this is the law under the FLSA.

I have no idea. The VA is very different than the private sector in many ways that do not make sense.

Because averages out to be 40 hours per week and by federal law they do not have to pay overtime if the average is under 40 hours per week. If you worked for a company which was on a 4 week pay period as long as you did not work more than 160 hours in that period they would not have to pay you overtime even if you worked most of the hours in the first 2 weeks. Firefighters do not get overtime until they work 56 hours in a week per federal law. Each state can make the wage rules stronger to make OT payable for each week or you where just lucky paid OT for each week and not the pay period. Seeing that you are from GA my guess is that it is your facility not the state law since the only mandated break is the federal lunch break no matter how long your work shift is. I have worked in 5 civilian facilities, all 2 week pay periods, in 3 different states and each one based OT on the pay period. Since you have to work 80 hours in a pay period in the VA system if you are full time basing OT on a week would make scheduling tougher and might eliminate 12 hour shifts and return to 8 hour shifts.

This came from the Wage and Hour Division of http://www.dol.gov:

The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee's workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned.

If you explore further it states that hospitals & residential care facilities may pay overtime based on a 80 hour 2 week basis. There are a few industries which are exempt from paying overtime at all.

There are a couple of ways that the VA handles OT that is different than the private sector, but for the most part it usually ends up being beneficial. In addition to the 80 hour rule, any shift worked outside of your scheduled shifts counts as overtime. Your unit schedule will usually come out a few weeks in advance and your shifts (aka: tour) will be certified. Even if you are scheduled less than 80 hours, any shift worked in addition to your certified tour is considered overtime. Most likely it is not something that will come up very often, but it means that if you are getting ready for vacation and are only scheduled 24 hours in a two week period (because you are taking vacation the other week) you can work OT and get paid OT pay even though you are not working the magical 80 hours.

Forget about that, you would never be paid over time in the private sector this way.

At the VA you can end up working overtime when there is a low census if you are scheduled to work that shift. Happened to me once, worked OT and only had 1 patient. The reason why is the VA staffs based on beds(empty or full) not just full beds like private facilities.