A judge ruled last week that a hospital worker can’t get paid if he didn’t fill out the proper paperwork.
Obioma Iwobi took Santa Monica-UCLA Hospital officials to small claims court last week for allegedly not paying him for six days of work.
Iwobi admitted he forgot to fill out his hours on the hospital’s time card, which are required to be submitted to a supervisor before he left for the evening. But he said he still worked six, 11-hour shifts that he wasn’t paid for. He said the hospital owed him $1,300.
Human resource officials from the hospital said they hadn’t found any records of Iwobi working those days. They said Iwobi had been paid through Oct. 2, 2002 — the day he had been fired from his job, which was taking patients’ vital signs.
“I think he must have gotten his dates mixed up,” said Peter Miller, a hospital human resources official.
Iwobi, a black man who appeared to be in his mid-20’s, said he didn’t get his dates mixed up. He said his supervisor is to blame because she allegedly discriminated against him and was never around when it was time to leave.
“My supervisor didn’t like me,” he said. “She said people like me don’t deserve to be paid for work. She discriminated against me.”
Judge Pro Tem Alan Freedman ruled that if Iwobi hadn’t taken the time to fill out his hour cards, then he couldn’t be paid for the hours he claims to have worked.
“You say you didn’t fill out the forms and go to a supervisor because she was never there,” Freedman said, “so you’re telling me that in a hospital that’s open 24 hours there wasn’t a supervisor around to turn in your time sheets?
“I just find that hard to believe,” he added. “I don’t think you have proved your case.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 3, 2003. Read the original PDF.