# Employee Rights



## USMCTrooper (Oct 23, 2003)

I ask this question because of a situation I will outline briefly here:

You are scheduled to work 40 hours, every week. This particular week, you work Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat. 
Saturdays are the end of the pay week. You have worked 1 of your 4 days when you are called to come in and work "4 hours of overtime" on day 2 in addition to your regular shift. You do so. You work day 3 of your 4 and 1 1/2 hours before starting your shift on Saturday, day 4 of 4, you are told, make that ordered, "not to come to work".

Reason?

We have scheduled too many people for saturday. Someone has to have their hours cut by 4.0. Since you worked an extra 4 hours 3 days ago, it puts you in the "OT category". To save from paying OT, we will not pay you for 4.0 hours of your shift tonight so dont come to work at your usual time, come in 4 hours later. We dont care that when you agreed to work "OT" in the beginning of the week you had no way of knowing we would shorten your regular schedule by the same amount of hours effectively wiping out your "OT". Unless you are _physically_ present for 40 hours, you dont get paid OT. Oh, and the shift differential you get for working Saturday nights (defined as any hours between 3pm - 11pm) You wont get that either since by the time you get here, its after 11pm......have a nice day :shock:


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## TheFuzz357 (Feb 21, 2003)

Your wife is a nurse?


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## CampusOfficer (Dec 29, 2002)

msp357 said:


> Your wife is a nurse?


Similar situation happened to my wife (nurse).


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

Sounds to me like the old "bait and switch": they needed to fill the open 4 hour time slot so they offered it as OT, knowing full well that they were going to cut the hours at the other end.

OR not.

Maybe somebody "made a mistake". :shock: 

As you know, mistakes happen two ways:

1. if a brave makes a mistake, he "f*cked-up".

2. if a chief makes a mistake, it was "an oversight".

In any event, the brave takes it in the neck.

If there is a union, they should be all over this. If not, one solution could be for the employees to refuse all overtime. Make them force people to cover shifts...once they start forcing people, they may run afoul of federal labor laws: I don't think they can continually change your schedule without due notice (as in force someone to work the "OT" shift and then cut their hours to avoid OT).

Labor law isn't my area, do some research...it just doesn't seem kosher to me! :no: I think if they offered it as OT, then that is what they have to pay.


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## USMCTrooper (Oct 23, 2003)

msp357 said:


> Your wife is a nurse?


yes....and to make matters worse, they have the balls to say "it happens very rarely if ever" Rare must be defined as twice in 2 years as thats the count so far (and we are talking just one person among thousands) :shock:

Not only was there a loss of the OT pay, but the differential pay too which in my book = 8.0 of money not 4.0! :FT: It would have been better to decline the OT had you known you would lose it and differential. They have a "union" about as politically effective as a Pampered Chef party. Mass & Connecticut have "associations" that are useless. No minimum staffing, no written policy on their equivilent of guest patrols, no specific policy on this OT issue (its vague at best) and no copy posted, provided to employees, etc. This "new policy" went into eff in Nov. Nothing like screwing the employee & family of peanuts (in the scheme of a multi-million dollar hospital budget) so CEO's can stay fat. :evil:

I was just looking to see if anyone else experienced such issues and what the thoughts were as a whole...............and to vent :wink:

_Brand-name edit: MT1. I burn disks and this is the thanks I get..._


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

USMC,

Those nasty bleepers! They take advantage of the fact that their employees are gals, not guys! Apologies to our female members, but female cops are alpha, unlike traditional female occupations(teachers, nurses, et al). 

Guys are confrontational: they are not going to take the BS. Gals, in my experience, wish to avoid confrontation, they "go-along-to-get-along"!

The bosses know they can intimidate their female staff and that the staff will not do anything about it.

period.

Until the employees are ready to stand up on their hind legs, the situation at hand will obtain.

If there is a male "wolf in the fold", he is probabaly considered a "crackpot" and impediment to contract negotiations.

Just my 2d.


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## ecpd402 (Sep 18, 2002)

My wife is a nurse also and runs into that situation all the time


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## Opie (May 28, 2003)

My sister is an RN at a very large Hospital in Boston and it happens all the time. Not so rare!


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

I don't care if the situation is rare or frequent: it's still bullsh1t. :x


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

Yup!
My better half is an R.N. too. MNA member and lost her job at Brockton Hospital three years ago in the strike. Union just managed to upset the apple cart. They think they won, but ask em now three(3) years later what the MNA really got them?
:roll:


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## PearlOnyx (Jun 28, 2002)

Thankfully, we have a clause prohibiting that in our contract.


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## USMCTrooper (Oct 23, 2003)

PearlOnyx said:


> Thankfully, we have a clause prohibiting that in our contract.


WE are unbelievably lucky to have contracts.

My wife and nearly every Nurse I know doesnt have a contract :shock:

Here is how they get a "raise" - the range is 2%- 6%. Sit down with your manager and IF they like you, you get the full 6, if not oh well. Forget how hard you work-politics goes a LONG way in this.

Is this the Dark Ages?? :evil:


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## dcs2244 (Jan 29, 2004)

I had a job like that in NY...


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## PearlOnyx (Jun 28, 2002)

USMC,

That's too bad that they don't have contracts. Before I worked at the jail, I worked security at Salem Hospital. The nurses there, had a very large union. However, they seemed to have some serious contract problems as well. I remember reading one article, where their president, a nurse in the ICU was fired for something very vague.


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## MVS (Jul 2, 2003)

Not all Hospitals are Union. Boston's Largest Hospital in NOT Union.


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