§7456A Nurses: Alternate Work Schedules

Summary

The Secretary may let registered nurses at VA health-care facilities use alternate work schedules to recruit or keep staff. One option lets a nurse who works six regular 12-hour shifts in a 14-day period be treated as if they worked a full 80-hour pay period. A nurse on that schedule counts as 0.90 full-time equivalent for staffing limits. For pay, service in a regularly scheduled 36-hour tour is paid at an hourly rate found by dividing the nurse’s annual basic pay by 1,872. Overtime must be paid when a nurse works beyond their scheduled 36 hours in the week, works more than 8 hours on a day that is not a scheduled 12-hour shift, works more than 12 hours in any scheduled day, or works more than 40 hours in an administrative work week. The Secretary may also give extra pay for time in a scheduled 12-hour shift. Sick or annual leave taken during a scheduled 12-hour shift is charged at 10 hours of leave for every 9 hours absent. Nurses on these schedules who work on a holiday can get holiday pay under the cited rules. The Secretary can also, with a nurse’s written agreement, allow a nurse to work full time for 9 months and be off for 3 months in a fiscal year while being paid 75 percent of the full-time rate each pay period. Those nurses count as 0.75 full-time equivalent for staffing limits. That work is treated as part-time for certain retirement benefits and as full-time for other benefits under title 5. The Secretary must give written notice at least 14 days before a nurse agrees, telling how the alternate schedule will affect health care premiums, retirement, life insurance premiums, probationary status, or other benefits. The Secretary must write rules to carry out these options.