Nurse practitioners and physician assistants for the federal government have just resolved claims of unpaid wages for a staggering $160 million. These care providers whoworked for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs alleged they went unpaid when working overtime hours.Approximately 3,200 current and former nurse practitioners and physician assistants who worked for this federal agency stand to benefit from this payout.
Nurses claimed they were forced to complete significant hours of overtime in order to update patients’ electronic health records. Monitoring and responding to patient-related notifications in the Computerized Patient Record System known as “View Alerts” were often completed after their normal scheduled hours. These “View Alerts” were time sensitive requests for information related to patient care that if they didn’t complete prior to leaving their shift they’d be subject to disciplinary action. Even though the agency expected these tasks to be completed they did not pay their nurse practitioners or physician assistants for their overtime hours above 40 hours per work week when updating the “View Alerts”.
If you work in a hospital or office setting and must update electronic records before leaving your shift, make sure you are being paid for all of your time. Companies often expect you and may even discipline you if you don’t complete or close out of all your daily computerized tasks, the time you spend on this may be compensable. In addition to finishing up your actual job duties, tasks like starting up, shutting off, logging in, and logging out complex computer programs, all add up. If you believe you aren’t being paid for all of your hours spent completing your work, call our employment law firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, for a free and confidential consultation. You can reach us at (212)300-0375 or you can visit our website for additional information on your rights.