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Salaries eyed for CHC nurses instead of hourly wages
The nursing units of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. are discussing among themselves the best way to implement a proposed pay adjustment that may be enforced starting next month.
According to CHCC director of nursing Leslie Camacho, they don’t have the actual rates yet but the adjustment may be in the form of converting nurses into salaried personnel instead of per-hour employees. That means a fixed monthly rate that is exempt from overtime.
“With this increase, according to the CEO, they will be exempt from the [Fair Labor Standards Act]. They will no longer be making overtime,” Camacho told Saipan Tribune last week. “The proposal is they’re going to be salaried so it will be the set amount.”
Camacho said she was scheduled to meet last Friday with the nursing units to consolidate their ideas and then present them to chief executive officer Esther Muña.
“We don’t have the actual rates. What we’re doing right now—and I’m meeting with head nurses and supervisors—is go back to their units and discuss this proposal for an increase in salary of their staff nurses and come up with, amongst their units, what they feel is appropriate,” Camacho said.
She said the nurses right now are clocking in and are paid from $11 and above per hour, depending on their unit.
She added that the salary should be able to compensate the nurses for extra hours that they might be needed for work.
“My question to the CEO during that meeting was, will this salary increase be able to compensate them for that extra time that they’re staying late?” Camacho said.
She said the pay adjustment would be a big help to the nurses and that a lot of them are looking forward to it.
“I think it would help a lot. I’m hoping that it will compensate for that extra time that they do stay late. There are days when there is no choice—nurses are out sick, other nurses have to work extra hours,” Camacho said.
“The staff nurses definitely will feel the increase, especially since they lost their housing, I think it was last year. So I think having this increase will hopefully compensate for that loss,” she added.
