weekend option plans

I worked at a very busy urban city hospital that had a weekend option plan. Here is how they worked it:

There were basically two groups of nurses working in the hospital. The Monday through Friday nurses who worked those 5 days of the week at 8 hours shifts.

The second group was the weekenders. They worked 12 hour shifts every Saturday and Sunday. If they did not call off for either day, they also received a weekly bonus which brought their salary up to the same level as the Monday through Friday 40 hour a week group. That bonus was to make up for the 16 hours out of 40 hours that they didn't work. The idea was so that each group of nurses was making the same amount of money. Some of the weekenders would make themselves available to work extra shifts during the week and boy! did they make money. If a person from the weekday group worked a weekend shift, they did not receive the bonus, just their regular wage, plus overtime if they hit over 40 hours in a week. When they hit 40 hours in a week they started earning overtime as well. There was a very strictly enforced attendance policy since just one nurse calling off sick upset the staffing immeasurably!

I have to say, however, that it always seemed to me that the weekend nurses were worked to death. They didn't have as much staff as the Monday through Friday group. They were just constantly busy. New graduate nurses were not allowed to work weekends for at least a year because of the workload--they just didn't have the experience to handle it. The program was ideal for moms and students who needed to be home during the week.

I am sure there are other versions of weekend plans out there, so if there is something about what I've described, don't fret. Your hospital may have come up with something completely different.