The Department of Mental Health and Developmental Services paid around $440 million in overtime over the period, which included 103 people who took home over $150,000 in overtime, according to the report. The audit found that a small group of employees were working the majority of overtime, and in one case, a nurse at Napa State Hospital accumulated $733,000 over the five-year period by working as much as 51 hours a week.
Staffing ratios that demand one-to-one patient care and no imposed cap on voluntary overtime for union workers attributed to the high levels of overtime pay, according to the report. Also, some workers were allowed to count leave time as overtime, but a law enacted this year will prohibit this practice among state employees.
Read the Chronicle’s report on the California hospitals’ excessive overtime payments.
