L
lpt3
Guest
What is the name of your state? Texas
My wife is a registered nurse at the day surgery recovery unit of a local hospital. Approximately once every two weeks she is required to be “on-call”. Her “on-call” status begins at 5:00 PM (the end of her regular eight-hour workday) and continues until reporting to work the next morning. In the past, she was only called in at night for emergency surgeries. However, due to a recent shortage of beds, the hospital has begun holding the “on-call” nurse over and forcing them to work from 5:00 PM until the next morning. This results in a 24-hour shift of work. Although unnecessary (several alternatives exist to cover the night shift) and despite complaints from an exhausted staff regarding this practice, it continues. Wages are not the issue here; they are paid a premium of one and one half their regular hourly rate. My question amounts to asking if it is legal as a condition of these nurses’ employment to require them to work overtime hours to this extent?
My wife is a registered nurse at the day surgery recovery unit of a local hospital. Approximately once every two weeks she is required to be “on-call”. Her “on-call” status begins at 5:00 PM (the end of her regular eight-hour workday) and continues until reporting to work the next morning. In the past, she was only called in at night for emergency surgeries. However, due to a recent shortage of beds, the hospital has begun holding the “on-call” nurse over and forcing them to work from 5:00 PM until the next morning. This results in a 24-hour shift of work. Although unnecessary (several alternatives exist to cover the night shift) and despite complaints from an exhausted staff regarding this practice, it continues. Wages are not the issue here; they are paid a premium of one and one half their regular hourly rate. My question amounts to asking if it is legal as a condition of these nurses’ employment to require them to work overtime hours to this extent?