No time clock leads to stolen wages?

[blackvans1234]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

The previous hospital I worked in (hourly paid employee) did not have time clocks.
We were paid from 0700 until 1915 for the shifts we worked.

This meant that the previous shift would come in at 1900 and would allow a 15 minute time period for hand off communication between staff.
If you are responsible for 5 patients that is equal to 3 minutes per person.

The industry standard (unwritten but likely proveable) is at least 30 minutes to give this hand off report. Managment would also want to ''have a quick huddle'' during this time, which would subtract from our 15 minutes as well.

The answer from management was we could fill out a slip for overtime.
The slips were not easily available and the ''reason for OT'' to be approved by a supervisor (not readily available). You would drop the slips off at the unit managers mailbox and they would not follow up with you regarding it.

The status quo with the staff at this facility was that this was ''okay''.

I no longer work there but I always had a very strong feeling this was illegal. ( You cant submit a complaint to the NYS Board of Labor anonymously)
Thoughts?

 

[cbg]

Specifically what are you thinking was illegal? The no time clock part? The shorter "hand off" time part? The difficult-to-get overtime slips part?

 

[blackvans1234]

All of the above

 

[cbg]

None of them are inherently illegal under employment law. There is no requirement that there be a time clock; the law requires an employer to keep accurate records of the time worked by non-exempt employees but there is no requirement that they do so by time clock. Employment law does not address the length of "hand-off" time or hand-off time specifically at all; if there is any law about it, it will be industry-specific. "Difficult" is not impossible.

But if the overall situation means that you did not get paid for all the time that you were working (including hand-off time) and/or that you did not get paid overtime if your overall hours were over 40 hours a week, then that is something for which you have recourse. You can try a claim with the state DOL, but NY is funny about what they will and will not take as a claim; if they refuse, you can always try small claims.

 

[FlyingRon]

What the industry standard is, is immaterial (even if there is such a standard which I would argue there isn't, a convention is not a standard). It's what your actual time on the job was (to include handoffs and huddles).