Registered nurses at D.C.’s largest hospital are protesting Thursday morning against unpaid meal breaks, late paychecks and pressure to work off the clock.
Nurses at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center filed a formal complaint with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, alleging systemic wage and hour violations by hospital management.
In the complaint filed by National Nurses United, nurses say there are altered timecards, missed or delayed paychecks and pressure from management to work outside of the hours they’re scheduled.
The protest is being held between 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. outside of the hospital on the corner of First St. NW and Irving St. NW.
Registered nurse John Cary said over the holidays, nurses in the operating room were not paid on payday, with some waiting for weeks. He also said emergency department nurses’ timecards were being altered after they clocked out.
“They were clocking out and attesting that they did not take a lunch break. It’s very busy in the ED and many times nurses are not able to take a lunch break. And so when they go to clock out, they press that button,” Cary said.
He said hospital management would go back into the timesheet and alter them to indicate nurses did take their break. That resulted in the nurses not getting paid the 30 minutes, “stealing 30 minutes of those nurses’ wages,” Cary said.
In a letter sent to the Office of the Attorney General, National Nurses United said management encourages nurses to come in early for their shift or pressures them to clock out so they don’t get overtime pay.
“Over a year, that extra 30 minutes unpaid a day adds up to about 6 shifts,” Cary said. “A whole paycheck of free work nurses are encouraged to provide for their employer.”
Medstar Washington released a statement on Thursday in response to the complaint, reading in part: “We immediately began looking into those concerns, and where we have confirmed a mistake, we have issued corrected paychecks to impacted nurses.”
Read the full statement from Medstar Washington here:
“We are committed to paying all our associates fairly, accurately, and on-time, and we have processes in place to meet this commitment on a daily basis. We encourage associates to raise any concerns about particular paychecks. Recently, we became aware of some concerns regarding pay for certain nurses. We immediately began looking into those concerns, and where we have confirmed a mistake, we have issued corrected paychecks to impacted nurses. We are continuing our review and will expedite correction of any errors we identify. Our goal is to calculate pay correctly for all associates every time. We appreciate our associates bringing this issue to our attention and we will take this opportunity to continuously improve our processes for the future.”
Cary said all the nurses are asking for is they get paid accurately and on time for the work they do.
“When nurses don’t receive a paycheck on time, that could be a mortgage payment, that could be a car payment missed, that could be a credit card payment missed,” Cary said. “These things matter and even if they’re paid, you know, weeks after the fact, it does not undo the damage that is caused.”
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