Nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center allege wage theft
The Office of the D.C. Attorney General has opened an investigation following a formal wage-theft complaint filed by nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, according to National Nurses United.
Anne Strauss, a representative with the National Nurses United union, told WTOP the organization received a call on Friday that the Office of the D.C. Attorney General was opening a probe.
In the complaint, registered nurses accuse MedStar Washington Hospital Center of committing systemic wage and hour violations. The nurses said they often worked through mandatory, unpaid 30-minute meal breaks and said the hospital altered time records to show breaks were taken — without their knowledge.
Calvin Jones, a nurse in the burn trauma intensive care unit, said the lost time adds up: “That equates to over the life of a year to two weeks of missed pay. … When I’m coming into work, I’m expected to get paid for every hour that I’m there.”
Nurses also said management encourages them to work off the clock, such as arriving early to read up on patients and clocking out before they are finished charting to avoid earning overtime.
Out of the 1,600 nurses at the hospital, the union said 800 worked off the clock in the last six months. Four hundred said they do it twice a month, another 230 said they do it one to two times a week.
The complaint also states nurses have gone unpaid for weeks or did not receive a timely paycheck. A pair of nurses said they were not paid over the holidays.
“The key issue is that missed paychecks have gone unpaid for weeks, or that they were getting paid, but it’s like half the pay,” said Jones. “This is affecting multiple units across multiple departments, our operating room, our emergency department and then other specialties across the hospital.”
Jones said the issue has a real-world effect on patient care.
“My patients shouldn’t have to worry if my nurse has enough gas money to get to work because their employer has paid them late,” said Jones. “Nurses have been ranked as the most trusted profession in America. Why would you rob the most trusted profession?”
In a statement to WTOP, MedStar Washington Hospital Center said, “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,” MedStar Washington Hospital Center said.
“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.”
Editor’s note: WTOP has reached out to the Office of the D.C. Attorney General for comment.