16 Dec 2011

American Samoa hospital to backdate overtime pay

11:33 am on 16 December 2011

The US Department of Labor is requiring American Samoa's LBJ Hospital to pay overtime wages for employees that the hospital did not fully compensate.

The LBJ CEO, Mike Gerstenberger, says the hospital is allocating US$578,000 for the overtime payments.

Mr Gerstenberger said a surveyor from the Labor Department, who reviewed the LBJ Hospital in October found discrepancies .

"They looked particularly at our calculation of overtime, and determined that it was inconsistent acrioss the hospital. And that in many cases we had underpaid staff for overtime."

Mike Gerstenberger says employees who had been paid the wrong overtime, going back to 2009, will be paid.