WSNA has been hearing numerous stories from nurses about management not paying incentives in the correct amount, not paying on time, and not allowing nurses to record the incentives they were offered and entitled to so then there is no record of the incentive pay due. WSNA took these concerns to management with the hope they would resolve the problems. Unfortunately, nothing changed. We were told they are trying and to be patient.

We are out of patience. There are nurses who still have not been paid for the incentive pay that was due to them for Labor Day weekend. WSNA is filing two Association grievances regarding these issues, one grievance regarding paying on time and another for not paying the $600 weekend incentive correctly. Management is prorating the $600 which is not what we agreed to.

This is not right. When you work you need to be paid what is due to you when it is due. State law requires all wages owed to an employee be paid by at least the following pay period. That is not happening. Nurses can help put pressure on management by filing complaints with L&I for not paying when they should. Here is a link to the State law: WAC 296-126-023: Payment interval. There you will find a lot of information about pay including the following:

(3) An employer shall pay all wages owed to an employee on an established regular pay day at no longer than monthly payment intervals. If federal law provides specific payment interval requirements that are more favorable to an employee than the payment interval requirements provided under this rule, federal law shall apply.

(6) An employer shall pay overtime wages owed to an employee on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the overtime wages were earned. If the correct amount of overtime wages cannot be determined until after such regular pay day, the employer may establish a separate pay day for overtime wages; however, the payment of overtime wages may not be delayed for a period longer than that which is reasonably necessary for the employer to compute and arrange for payment of the amount due, and overtime wages must be paid by the regular pay day following the next pay period.

Every employee has the right to file a complaint with L&I and should. Here is the link to electronically file a complaint: Workplace Rights Complaint (wa.gov).

Do you wonder if your paycheck is correct?

WSNA nurses have the right to request to meet with HR and have their paychecks reviewed and explained to them how it was paid. This is all because Sonia DaSilva filed a grievance when she did not believe she was being paid correctly. WSNA was able to settle the grievance with the following agreement:

• The settle­ment agree­ment states: A nurse with a question about the calcu­la­tion of overtime in a specific pay period shall be directed to contact an HR Repre­sen­ta­tive. The HR Repre­sen­ta­tive will then provide the nurse with a copy of the nurse’s Regular Rate Calcu­la­tion Worksheet for the pay period in question. The HR Repre­sen­ta­tive will provide an expla­na­tion of the Employer’s overtime calcu­la­tion method­ology and how the Employer utilized that methodology.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Repre­sen­ta­tive Barbara Friesen at bfriesen@wsna.org.