Fountain Valley workers win nearly $40,000 in unpaid bonuses and PTO
Twenty-one lab workers at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital won $22,500 in back pay when management failed to pay workers $150 to $300 in extra-shift bonuses they had been promised.
After waiting a couple of pay periods, stewards and bargaining team members organized workers in the lab to document what they were owed, and presented that information to management. Soon after, management distributed the back pay bonuses, with an average payout of $1,000, and the highest payout of $2,300.
Management also had to pay a $16,000 penalty to a registered nurse when they failed to pay her the accumulated PTO when she left her position after giving two weeks’ notice.
California law requires that employers give workers their final paycheck and any accumulated PTO on the last day they work. When the RN left, the hospital failed to pay the $443 PTO she had on the books.
“I tried multiple times to get HR to pay me what I was owed, but I got no response”, said the RN. “It wasn’t until I contacted NUHW that I finally got results and management took it seriously.”
Workers who aren’t paid on their last day are eligible for penalty pay, which is a full day of wages for every single day that they were not paid. Members advised management they would take legal action to get not just the PTO that the RN was owed, but also penalty pay.
In mid-August, the hospital issued a check for $15,980 in penalty pay in accordance with the law.