Docking Exempt Nurse for Safety Violation

Rockie

Need a quick answer to this question. I think I am correct, but would like validation.

The nurses in our faciity are classified as exempt. Their licensure is up for renewal on January 31. They will not be allowed to come into the facility until they present a valid license.

I consider a nurse having an invalid license a major safety violation and therefore it is legal to dock their pay in this instance. I do not want to allow them to use PTO time as this only encourages not getting the license; nor do I want to place them on suspension with pay for a couple of days as this will also encourage them to stay out of work.

Please let me know your feelings on this. We have a couple of people who always push the envelope. One has already been sanctioned by the nursing board previously for not having a current license.

Thanks for your help!

Gar

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-29-02 AT 09:05AM (CST)[/font][p]Suspend without pay until they get their licenses. Moreover, if you can pull it off (given the nursing shortage), tell them they have a certain period of time to do so or face employment termination. After all, what good is a nurse without a license? When you hit folks in the pocketbook they usually get the message.

WT

The example given for major safety infraction would be smoking in an explosives factory or other environment where such behavior could cause death and destruction. Failing to renew a license is a technical issue and does not put fellow workers at risk. Rather, it is damaging to the employer in that unlicensed personnel are working. You want to discipline but also need to keep your salary exemption. Why not suspend the individual for an entire week or pay period. If no work is done in any pay period, you need not pay the individual and your exemption is not at risk. This may be more severe punishment than you had in mind but it would certainly get the employee's attention.

Rockie

Thanks GAR.I appreciate the info. I will suspend without pay until the license is presented.

Down_the_Middle

Rockie:
I don't see the safety violation issue here, for failure to provide licensure; rather a suspendable situation for failure to satisfy the prerequisite for working---- a valid license. We suspend our exempt, licensed staff frequently when they fail to satisfy this requirement and we treat this as a disciplinary issue. They can't be scheduled when they don't satisfy the prereq's for the position.

Hatchetman

We often have licensed professional staff who, for whatever reason, have their licenses expire or at least, can't produce evidence of renewed professional license by the expiry date (could be bureaucratic problem).

In those cases, we had the employee perform other duties than the ones that require the license -- e.g. paperwork or training, until the evidence of license renewal is established, which usually is in a couple of days.

In our particular situation, though, the employer decided to deem these "profesional positons" as non-exempt (to a large extent because they are "unionized") so we don't have the particular problem you mention.

I would only suspend, maybe pending further employer action (such as discharge or reduction to position that doesn't require the nurse license), in full work week increments. As an exempt employee, the nurse may be suspended (there is no law, as far as I know that would prohibit it). Unless there is a violation of a major safety rule, you can't suspend in partial work weeks under FLSA. Department of Labor and FLSA rules do provide that you don't have to pay an exempt employee for any week in which they perform NO work -- thus the suspension in full work week increments.

I don't see that failing to renew license or the license expiring is a violation of a major safety rule that is envisioned by FLSA. The FLSA admonition really does mean a major safety rule -- like smoking in the dynamite room of an ammunitions manufacturer. The licensure issues appears to be one of remaining qualified to hold the position.

Rockie

Thanks to everyone for their information. We did finally receive everything we needed from everyone after letting them know they could be suspended a week without pay. The sad thing is that renewal notices for nurses are sent out in October, so there is really no excuse for waiting until the last moment.

One of these same individuals was a person who had been sanctioned two years ago by the nursing board for working without a license in our facility. Our chief nursing officer was also sanctioned for allowing this to happen and her license was placed in jeopardy along with the offending nurse.

We decided then, as a company,that we would have zero tolerance for nurses not getting their licenses in by the deadline - the penalty being they could not come into the facility without a valid license.

It's too bad that "professionals" have to be reminded and threatened like this, but there are always a few who want to "push the envelope."