Work Question Regarding Call Back and Overtime.

[ultrarunner]

After college I worked about a year in a Union Shop... great experience and everyone knew the rules... just needed to look it up or ask the steward when in doubt.

For 10 years I had my own company which I still have on a greatly reduced scale.

For 25 years I was salaried exempt management holding a Director Title which was eliminated.

Since the merger 9 months ago my position was reclassified as hourly with time card and we are are not a Union Hospital.

My question is regarding Call Back and Overtime as an hourly employee.

We have had a rash of early morning hour attempted break ins (2) and a weekend emergency Boiler repair... over the last two weeks.

The second break in I actually caught the guy... followed the trail of blood from where he cut himself after smashing a window and crawling through at 1 am on Sunday... the police, clean up and boarding/securing the area took 4 hours... the steam boiler was more involved as I had to replace a pump Sunday so as the surgery schedule would not be impacted for Monday...

The Hospital Admin called me in and praised me for my efforts BUT said paying me overtime is a problem... believe me... I would rather have stayed in bed instead of apprehending a 3rd strike petty felon or cancelled my family plans for Sunday fixing the boiler.

Anyway... going forward... anytime I work outside my 5 am to 1:30 pm daily shift will have to be taken away from my next scheduled shift... so if I have 5 hours of Sunday Call In... my regular 8 hour Monday shift will be reduced by 5 hours to 3 hours... making it 5 am to 8 am...

Sounds odd to me but this is the way it has to be... having no experience working hourly outside of a Union Shop... is this typical?

For 25 years... I had plenty of Call... but being salaried it was simply my job... no matter when or how often... I was expected to manage my own time and get the job done.

Have to admit I hate spending time in front of the time clock waiting to clock back from mandatory meal break...

Admin's goal is Perfect Time Cards... but I don't see how this is possible for hourly engineering without 24/7 onside engineering presence.

Corp has said it is the responsibility of salaried managers to respond to after hour events... but 100% of the management is female and they bluntly refuse to respond to any after hours event or they live a great distance away... I live close and have been doing the response for 25 years.... the only thing that changed is now there is a time card record of it.

Post Script... HR says I am under no obligation to respond outside my shift and only those receiving On-Call pay are required to be available... and my position does not qualify... however I am the only local contact for Police, Fire, Security, etc...

 

[fried1765]

After college I worked about a year in a Union Shop... great experience and everyone knew the rules... just needed to look it up or ask the steward when in doubt.

For 10 years I had my own company which I still have on a greatly reduced scale.

For 25 years I was salaried exempt management holding a Director Title which was eliminated.

Since the merger 9 months ago my position was reclassified as hourly with time card and we are are not a Union Hospital.

My question is regarding Call Back and Overtime as an hourly employee.

We have had a rash of early morning hour attempted break ins (2) and a weekend emergency Boiler repair... over the last two weeks.

The second break in I actually caught the guy... followed the trail of blood from where he cut himself after smashing a window and crawling through at 1 am on Sunday... the police, clean up and boarding/securing the area took 4 hours... the steam boiler was more involved as I had to replace a pump Sunday so as the surgery schedule would not be impacted for Monday...

The Hospital Admin called me in and praised me for my efforts BUT said paying me overtime is a problem... believe me... I would rather have stayed in bed instead of apprehending a 3rd strike petty felon or cancelled my family plans for Sunday fixing the boiler.

Anyway... going forward... anytime I work outside my 5 am to 1:30 pm daily shift will have to be taken away from my next scheduled shift... so if have 5 hours of Sunday Call In... my regular 8 hour Monday shift will be reduced by 5 hours to 3 hours... making it 5 am to 8 am...

Sounds odd to me but this is the way it has to be... having no experience working hourly outside of a Union Shop... is this typical?

For 25 years... I had plenty of Call... but being salaried it was simply my job... no matter when or how often... I was expected to manage my own time and get the job done.

Have to admit I hate spending time in front of the time clock waiting to clock back from mandatory meal break...

Admin's goal is Perfect Time Cards... but I don't see how this is possible for hourly engineering without 24/7 onside engineering presence.

Corp has said it is the responsibility of salaried managers to respond to after hour events... but 100% of the management is female and they bluntly refuse to respond to any after hours event or they live a great distance away... I live close and have been doing the response for 25 years.... the only thing that changed is now there is a time card record of it.

Post Script... HR says I am under no obligation to respond outside my shift and only those receiving On-Call pay are required to be available... an my position does not qualify... however I am the only local contact for Police, Fire, Security, etc...

Retiring soon ????

 

[PJSprog]

It seems both your employer and your manager have put you in an untenable position. It's not your responsibility, yet you are expected to do it nonetheless? Not sure what state labor laws are like where you are, but I have a reasonable suspicion that federal laws may be a little stretched regarding your overtime situation.

I don't see a clean solution to your problem, honestly. Your company policy seems at odds with your manager's practice, and you are left to clean it up. Looks like you can either continue being the glue that holds it all together, or you can muddy the waters by forcing others to do things the right way (as per the company policy, anyway). That, of course, won't make you any new friends in management, which I'm sure you already know.

This type of situation is why I no longer work in the aerospace industry. I refused to play those silly games, and was let go at the first layoff opportunity.

 

[jaxs]

For 25 years I was salaried exempt management holding a Director Title which was eliminated.

Since the merger 9 months ago my position was reclassified as hourly with time card and we are are not a Union Hospital.

My question is regarding Call Back and Overtime as an hourly employee.

Post Script... HR says I am under no obligation to respond outside my shift and only those receiving On-Call pay are required to be available... an my position does not qualify... however I am the only local contact for Police, Fire, Security, etc...

So,doesn't that answer your question(s)?
If you want advice,here it is. If you would like a nice fat bonus at retirement(which appear's to be soon),document,document then document times and work performed. When faced with threat of a face off with labor officials they are bound to lose,corporate will cut the check for all the earned overtime and on call supplement pay. Yes,even if the weekly hours total 40 hours after manipulating your hours,it is considered over time pay rate.

 

[ultrarunner]

Retiring soon ????

The retirement plan was frozen many years ago... under the new employer there is a match of 50% of the first 6% of employee contribution...

Years ago we had a decent plan... it took 8 years to vest... management changed just before I had 4 years so I was 20% vested... it bumped along with no match for many years.

It is something I think about... but find it hard to walk away from the facility I was part of when the concrete was being poured... so much of me is in the place and I love the patients.

You probably are right... just too set to change.

 

[Industrial Toys]

It seems to me that your only problem is that you are too nice. They made the rules. Let them fall flat on their face, by those rules.

In this country/province you would have it made with current labor laws.

 

[ultrarunner]

It seems both your employer and your manager have put you in an untenable position. It's not your responsibility, yet you are expected to do it nonetheless? Not sure what state labor laws are like where you are, but I have a reasonable suspicion that federal laws may be a little stretched regarding your overtime situation.

I don't see a clean solution to your problem, honestly. Your company policy seems at odds with your manager's practice, and you are left to clean it up. Looks like you can either continue being the glue that holds it all together, or you can muddy the waters by forcing others to do things the right way (as per the company policy, anyway). That, of course, won't make you any new friends in management, which I'm sure you already know.

This type of situation is why I no longer work in the aerospace industry. I refused to play those silly games, and was let go at the first layoff opportunity.

I'm good a filling in the gaps and putting out fires... something I think corp doesn't understand...

I already muddy the waters once... purely unintentional... we have assigned on line learning... one was providing excellent customer service regarding patients, doctors, etc...

Customer Service was ALWAYS are strong suit being a stand alone community hospital... if a patient had a billing question, the clerk that prepared the bill would go over it with them in person... of if a Doctor needed a special instrument for surgery... I would get it...

Now, we are directed to give the patient a 800 number to call a billing office in another State... had an old gentleman with broken English come in... he had a letter his grand daughter wrote that was never answered but he keeps getting collection notices...

HR was in and asked if I had any questions after they verified open enrollment... I mentioned the irony of the online Customer Service Training and then having to tell patients all we can do is refer them to an 800 number... well, my one remark caused a whirlwind... the Hospital Administrator came to me asking why I went over her head and why she got a call from compliance... I said I had documented it to her and had simply told HR that corp billing was dropping the ball...

 

[Snobdds]

When something breaks, just don't come in. Let the policies work and let the chip fall for manangement where they lie.

Corporations ran by new MBA's only know how to do one thing, paper manage. As long a a piece of paper has all the metrics they deem important are met, they're happy...even if everything is falling apart.

Business schools are ruining corporate america.

 

[ultrarunner]

It seems to me that your only problem is that you are too nice. They made the rules. Let them fall flat on their face, by those rules.

In this country/province you would have it made with current labor laws.

I have been accused of that before...

The Hospital Housekeeping is outsourced to a small local company and we are their biggest account... they have been with us for 24 years...

As part of the transition, accounts payable was moved far away to corporate headquarters.

The janitorial company which was always paid on the first business day of each month had not been paid for two months...

I had been over House Keeping as Facility Director...

A group of the Housekeepers came to me saying they had not been paid were walking off the job... not good.

I convinced them to stay promising to look into to it and they were skeptical until I said if they did not have their back pay by next Tuesday, I would make it good.

Anyway... what a nightmare with the result nothing had changed by that following Tuesday... so I went to my bank and gave each of them an advance from my own money... $5500 in total... these ladies had rent to pay, food, medicine... etc.

You would have thought I had just launched a class action lawsuit against my employer when word got out...

The end result is word got to Corp that I had paid them... by the end of the week the checks had arrived by courier and all the housekeepers paid me back the following day.

Corp didn't get it.. I had given my word to the housekeepers and I keep my word.

Thankfully that matter has been resolved but I am continually getting calls from vendors... some 4 or 5 months waiting for payment...

Before merger, I could simply walk over to accounts payable and call the vendor saying the check will go out this week or the reason for the delay... tremendous impact when people know your are a person of your word... because when it is all said and done business is about relationships.

 

[ultrarunner]

When something breaks, just don't come in. Let the policies work and let the chip fall for manangement where they lie.

Corporations ran by new MBA's only know how to do one thing, paper manage. As long a a piece of paper has all the metrics they deem important are met, they're happy...even if everything is falling apart.

Business schools are ruining corporate america.

Sad to say but I think they have wore me down... resistance is futile... we are Borg for Star Trek fans...