Hospital Must Pay Overtime

Henry L. Day Medical Center in Silverton has suffered another setback in its bid to reopen for acute care.

A U.S. Department of Labor audit last month showed the tiny hospital owes employees $12,756.20 in unpaid overtime.

“We’re not cheating anyone,” hospital administrator Fred Manthey said Monday. “We found out we had to change our policy so this wouldn’t happen again.”

In response to a complaint from a former hospital employee, the Labor Department contacted Manthey. The hospital then audited its finances for the past two years.

According to hospital policy, employees earned overtime any time they worked more than eight hours in one day. But the hospital paid overtime only when employees worked more than 40 hours in one week, Manthey said.

Of the 30 employees due money for overtime work, Marianne Hull, the former director of the hospital’s home health department, is due the most - $7,600. Hull quit in April to open her own home health business and hospice.

Though struggling to balance the books and reopen, the hospital will pay the overtime money.

“We’ll be able to pay,” Manthey said. “We’re on a time payment schedule, but we can do it.”