I work in healthcare and since the hedge fund bought our company in 2021, they’ve been squeezing the employees to increase their margins. I went to college for a looooong time to make it to this role, gave up everything I had and moved 3,500 miles away from home to work here in Hawaii, and now the company is restructuring in a horrendous way. Due to a non-compete I had to sign in order to get the job, I can’t even apply for another healthcare job in this location, I’d have to move 1,500 miles away to work.
About two weeks ago, they decided they would only pay our base salaries. We can get called in to work any time we’re on call, which is okay because it’s an expectation of the job, but before two weeks ago we would be paid a tiny sum to come in if we weren’t on call. Now, I can get called in at any time and be forced to work for free any time- 24 hrs a day and 7 days a week- and it happened to me last weekend. This is definitely unethical business practice, and it’s questionably illegal. We also have to cover long-term care in the ICU for a device called ECMO for free, which we staff 24 hrs a day in between 9 employees while also managing our OR jobs. Sleep and food is a luxury we don’t always get.
Does anybody know who I should be contacting to investigate if this is legal? I’ll be looking into a lawyer too if this continues. We have a meeting to discuss this but the company doesn’t seem to want to budge. They’re doing the same thing across all accounts in the nationwide company.
Thank you for reading, I’m happy to clear anything up if there are more questions.