Overtime for Public Health Nurses – ASEA Fought and Won!

Public employees are working extra hard right now during the novel coronavirus outbreak. Public Health Nurses are among those employees and were previously ineligible to receive overtime. Because of their extraordinary workload, ASEA and the state agreed to enter into a letter of agreement (LOA) that will allow specified FLSA overtime exempt employees to receive time and a half for work that is performed in addition to 40 hours of work per week. This agreement is valid as long as the emergency declaration by the Governor is in place.  

In this LOA, the state originally proposed to offer overtime in addition to 42 hours of work per week. ASEA negotiated the state to drop the ‘overtime trigger’ down to 40 hours and would have preferred the overtime to begin at 37.5 hours, but the state would not agree to that.

Overall, this is a much improved situation for Public Health Nurses that previously received no overtime for work that occurred beyond 40 hours per week. ASEA appreciates the state’s cooperation in this effort and will continue to work with the state to make sure all public employees have what they need to stay safe and healthy during this time.

pdf ASEA-SOA LOA DHSS Overtime Eligibility for COVID-19 Response (Apr. 20, 2020) (99 KB)