I don't see why they shouldn't be paid for it. This is something that cannot be done before they get to work, must be performed on the premises, and is an integral part of their job function.

But then this is the same system that often requires interns to work 32 hour shifts with 12 hours off.

No, wait. We're comparing nurses to strippers. My bad. Nurses should work naked ;)

MBK: SpinStopper: No, wait. We're comparing nurses to strippers. My bad. Nurses should work naked ;)

....have you seen non-TV nurses? They...aren't always cute and bubbly and full of sex.

Believe me, I was being (mostly) sarcastic. My youngest sister was a nurse. When she weighed 300 pounds.

Oh, and I'm not exaggerating. She really did tip the scales at just over 300 pounds, and she wasn't tall enough to make that look good, either ;)

SpinStopper: She really did tip the scales at just over 300 pounds, and she wasn't tall enough to make that look good, either ;)

Unless you're 9 feet tall, there's no way anyone can make 300lbs look good.

I'm OK with this. I HATE how scrubs are allowed to leave the hospital. It's one of the reasons why infections diseases become pervasive.

MidnightSkulker: I have no problem with this. I'd also have liked to have seen my old employer do something similar. We were required to be at work 10-15 minutes before our shift to read email and open and log in to our necessary programs (eit of them), but we didn't get paid for that time, and would be disciplined if we took a couple minutes at the start of our shift to do it. Wasn't strictly speaking legal, but to fight it meant you were fired because pretty much all call centres do it.

Way I figure it, over the eighteen months I worked there, they got at minimum 40 hours of time out of me for which I wasn't paid.

Oh god, that's sleazy. Freakin' cheap-ass bastards.

ZAZ: See "Portal to Portal Act" if you're interested in employment law rather than naked nurses.

Yeah, was going to say; "Is this pretty well covered and established case law by now?"

what? this is stupid. my girl is an RN and she goes to work and comes home in her scrubs like most other
docs and nurse.

My employer was forced (via class action lawsuit) to automatically pay us for 3 minutes at the beginning of our shift prior to clocking in for the time it takes to bring up our systems and be ready to work.

/One guess what state the suit originated in

MidnightSkulker: all call centres do it

Meh, still beats my old job.
At least nobody's shootin at me.

I get in early anyway, and I really love this job.

At my last job my MD suddenly decided that we would all have our weekly team meeting at 8:30am on a Monday morning because there wasn't time to fit it into the paid working week........ that lasted about a week before she realised people weren't going to come in early, on a Monday, for free, just because she couldn't run a company.

I also used to work in HR for a while and once got a phonecall from somebody saying, "Hello, I've turned up half an hour early today because there wasn't as much traffic as normal. How do I claim the overtime?"

Idiots are everywhere.....

I guess I'm the one to start...

MBK: SpinStopper: No, wait. We're comparing nurses to strippers. My bad. Nurses should work naked ;)

....have you seen non-TV nurses? They...aren't always cute and bubbly and full of sex.

I dunno, the nursing majors at my college were great.....prettier and smarter than the average. I dated two of 'em, back in the day.

thelordofcheese: I'm OK with this. I HATE how scrubs are allowed to leave the hospital. It's one of the reasons why infections diseases become pervasive.

I am a nurse, and I agree it is gross. I immediately remove my scrubs when I get home. Depending on the day, I may strip in the garage.

Though I personally think the labcoats are the worst. They get worn for days.

That being said, the hospital I work at does not provide scrubs unless you work in the OR. Everyone else wears their own personal scrubs to work. Since there is no changing area for non-OR personnel, you wear your own scrubs to work, and then wear them home. And to the grocery store, on the train, and every other errand you run on your way home.

/MRSA anyone?
//germs

How is doing something integral to the job not done on paid time anyway?

On the topic of hot nurses, healthcare is a weird environment, I worked 7 years in Healthcare IT and there was a higher percentage of obese employees and smokers there than at my current company. You would think if you work around the dangers of that type of living all day, you'd try to avoid it.

My fiance is an RN and she is reqired to stay after her shift to bring the new nurses up to speed on her patients. She usually stays about 45 minutes extra per shift. She works three 12 hour shifts per week so even with the extra 45 minutes each day she still doesn't exceed the 40 hours per week she is paid for. I'm not sure but I would assume she is clock in for the entire 12 hours and 45 minutes.

If you are doing work for your employer you need to be clocked in and paid for every minute you are on the clock. It's that simple in my mind.

MidnightSkulker: I have no problem with this. I'd also have liked to have seen my old employer do something similar. We were required to be at work 10-15 minutes before our shift to read email and open and log in to our necessary programs (eit of them), but we didn't get paid for that time, and would be disciplined if we took a couple minutes at the start of our shift to do it. Wasn't strictly speaking legal, but to fight it meant you were fired because pretty much all call centres do it.

Way I figure it, over the eighteen months I worked there, they got at minimum 40 hours of time out of me for which I wasn't paid.

Contact the department of labor in your state.

CSB: A year or two after I left a construction job, the dept. of labor sent me a notice; my employer had been busted for not paying OT rates, send the DoL the number of hours I worked during the period I was employed by the company.

I gave a rough estimate and received a few hundred bucks a month or so later.

DoBeDoBeDo: How is doing something integral to the job not done on paid time anyway?

On the topic of hot nurses, healthcare is a weird environment, I worked 7 years in Healthcare IT and there was a higher percentage of obese employees and smokers there than at my current company. You would think if you work around the dangers of that type of living all day, you'd try to avoid it.

The stress and unusual working hours probably leads to it.

SpinStopper:

No, wait. We're comparing nurses to strippers. My bad. Nurses should work naked ;)

Most nurses are the kind you rather not see naked, ever

MBK: SpinStopper: No, wait. We're comparing nurses to strippers. My bad. Nurses should work naked ;)

....have you seen non-TV nurses? They...aren't always cute and bubbly and full of sex.

Well, you got two out of three right.

Nurses file lawsuit over the time it takes them to get dressed and undressed, argue they should get paid for the extra 15 minutes a day.

Soooo, nurses arrive at work naked ?

If it takes you that long to change into and out of your scrubs, I don't think I want you treating me.

Torok: If you are doing work for your employer you need to be clocked in and paid for every minute you are on the clock. It's that simple in my mind.

Exactly.

When I worked retail they regularly expected me to show up 15 minutes early to get the register ready, etc and another 15 minutes after the shift (to count the till, cleanup etc). You're damn right I marked down all the extra time I did on my time sheet.

If you want me to work, pay me for it.

I was elsewhere on the internet recently and some cranky old nurse was complaining that one of the younger nurses, who was pregnant, wouldn't come in before her shift started to do paperwork and get assignments sorted out, and someone asked if they were paid for that time, and the cranky nurse said no, at which point about five people pointed out that it was illegal to have people working without paying them and for fark's sake it's ruthless to have a pregnant woman work an extra half hour before a 12 hour shift for free.

Her response "Oh, but that's just the way things are done."

It doesn't take a psychic to see that a lot more of these lawsuits will soon be showing up in the healthcare field.

AqueousBoy: I guess I'm the one to start...

[img42.imageshack.us image 280x375]

That's the heart attack grill nurse?

Didn't RTFA, but how is getting dressed for your job "on the clock"? Everybody has to dress for their job. If you want to head to the hospital and do it there, as opposed to just putting on your scrubs the way anybody else would put on their jeans/suit/jumpsuit prior to work, that's your problem. Should the kids at Burger King get an extra few bucks since they have to put on a special uniform before they start work?

AqueousBoy: I guess I'm the one to start...

[img42.imageshack.us image 280x375]

I like where this thread is headed. Paging nurse HD to the thread please... nurse HD to the thread.

Faber: Didn't RTFA, but how is getting dressed for your job "on the clock"? Everybody has to dress for their job. If you want to head to the hospital and do it there, as opposed to just putting on your scrubs the way anybody else would put on their jeans/suit/jumpsuit prior to work, that's your problem. Should the kids at Burger King get an extra few bucks since they have to put on a special uniform before they start work?

Then you should RTFA.

If you're instructed by your employer to show up 15 minutes before your shift so you could change and then set up a policy that scrubs are not to leave the premise so you have another 15 minutes to undress, that's 30 minutes per shift you're not getting paid for. That adds up. I had to gown up before entering a clean room for a photography gig once and if I had to do that everyday for my job you bet I would bill for that time.

Back in the 90's some K-9 cops in Florida filed a class action suit to get paid for the time they spent every day feeding and caring for their dogs. A friend of mine bought a new Harley with the backpay check he got.

My current employer wants me to itemize my timesheet in quarter hour increments and wants me to do it on my own time so I'm getting a kick out of this thread.

Faber: Didn't RTFA, but how is getting dressed for your job "on the clock"? Everybody has to dress for their job. If you want to head to the hospital and do it there, as opposed to just putting on your scrubs the way anybody else would put on their jeans/suit/jumpsuit prior to work, that's your problem. Should the kids at Burger King get an extra few bucks since they have to put on a special uniform before they start work?

Burger King doesn't require employees change at work.

Anyway, I thought nurses were salaried and on call, not hourly employees.

JWideman: Anyway, I thought nurses were salaried and on call, not hourly employees.

Depends on what hospital you work for.

FTFA:

These nurses are required to wear scrubs while on the job. Those scrubs are not allowed to leave the hospital. The process could add 15 minutes to their shift.

"We have to go into a certain area not by the time clock, to find our size, which is not readily available and then change and then go back to the time clock and punch in," said Aurora Medical Center nurse Natalie Fiore.

A telltale sign we're probably not talking about hot nurses here, unless they keep the uniforms in a not readily accessible area, perhaps requiring the staff to bend down to get them out of the locker?

Faber: Didn't RTFA, but how is getting dressed for your job "on the clock"? Everybody has to dress for their job. If you want to head to the hospital and do it there, as opposed to just putting on your scrubs the way anybody else would put on their jeans/suit/jumpsuit prior to work, that's your problem. Should the kids at Burger King get an extra few bucks since they have to put on a special uniform before they start work?

It's simple. If there's a task I need to perform for work, that can only be performed at work, then pay me for it.

If I can't put on my scrubs at home, due to workplace regulations, then me getting dressed at work is a work task, albeit a small one. Once I start doing any task at work, small or not, I should start getting paid. The clock shouldn't start ticking later.

Don't want to pay me more time? Recognize that the first few minutes of my day will include setup time.

Faber  

2011-11-11 09:21:28 AM     

Didn't RTFA, but how is getting dressed for your job "on the clock"? Everybody has to dress for their job. If you want to head to the hospital and do it there, as opposed to just putting on your scrubs the way anybody else would put on their jeans/suit/jumpsuit prior to work, that's your problem. Should the kids at Burger King get an extra few bucks since they have to put on a special uniform before they start work?

And that is why you should read the article before commenting, you idiot. Why you would have a position on something you haven't got a clue about is beyond me, please don't vote.

They need to be paid under their current policy.

/CSB. I took a 2nd part time, 2nd shift crappy job at a factory back in the day that 'Required' depending on supervisor, to get there 30 mins early for stretching, sharpen knives, and job/machine debrief before shift- $10/hr lol. But they did have paid break time, and occasionally would hand you a $50 if it was a good output pay period for the plant so I didn't feel too ridiculous being there. Luckily only had to do that a couple months, worked 7:30am-Midnight a few times/week, ick. /CSB

There used to be a time when you worked an 8 hour day from 9-5 and got an hour for lunch. Yup, you got paid while you ate.

I wonder what happened to that.

So, no, I have no objection to paying someone to suit up for their job, be it HAZMAT equipment or a nurse's uniform.

MidnightSkulker: Way I figure it, over the eighteen months I worked there, they got at minimum 40 hours of time out of me for which I wasn't paid.

My boss pulls this stuff. I have about a month of time now that I am owed. Oh well.

BurnShrike: When I worked retail they regularly expected me to show up 15 minutes early to get the register ready, etc and another 15 minutes after the shift (to count the till, cleanup etc). You're damn right I marked down all the extra time I did on my time sheet.

And they are supposed to pay for this. That's the law.

BeerBear: SpinStopper:

No, wait. We're comparing nurses to strippers. My bad. Nurses should work naked ;)

Most nurses are the kind you rather not see naked, ever

Depends where you work and what floor you are on. There is a hospital in Philly that is referred to as the playboy mansion of hospitals. For it's nurses.

And I can't possibly be the only nurse that used to be a stripper?

Stripping pays better, and there is no poop. Stripper > nurse?

The Irresponsible Captain: There used to be a time when you worked an 8 hour day from 9-5 and got an hour for lunch. Yup, you got paid while you ate.

I wonder what happened to that.

Employers got cheap and then they noticed that Americans were willing to sacrifice their vacation time. That's what happened.

When I was working guard duty, we had to come in 15-30 minutes early to check out weapons and radios. I just put that into my working hours even though technically I wasn't on duty. Had the boss look at me like I was a freak for not being willing to do that for free. I pointed out to him that although that stuff might have passed when he was in the Army, we are civilians now and I get paid by the hour. He never said a thing, though it was funny when I started doing the math for my coworkers and pointing out how much money they were losing out on. Of course none of them wanted to question the chief msgt (ret.).

JWideman: Faber: Didn't RTFA, but how is getting dressed for your job "on the clock"? Everybody has to dress for their job. If you want to head to the hospital and do it there, as opposed to just putting on your scrubs the way anybody else would put on their jeans/suit/jumpsuit prior to work, that's your problem. Should the kids at Burger King get an extra few bucks since they have to put on a special uniform before they start work?

Burger King doesn't require employees change at work.

Anyway, I thought nurses were salaried and on call, not hourly employees.

Everywhere I have worked its been hourly. You get differential for weekends as well as afternoon/overnight shifts. 50-60k is typical for FL.