Q: Is there a law that protects nurses from being forced to work overtime?
A: Yes. The Restrictions on Consecutive Hours of Work for Nurses law, which went into effect on July 1, 2009, prohibits health care employers from mandating overtime for nurses, and stipulates the conditions under which exceptions to this rule may be made. The New York State Department of Labor (NYS DOL) is responsible for enforcement of this law. The law can be found here.
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Q: What is meant by overtime?
A: “Overtime” in this context is different from its usual meaning: hours past forty in a given week. Here, “overtime” means work hours over and above the predetermined and regularly scheduled work hours a nurse has agreed to work.
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Q: Who is covered under the law for mandatory overtime restrictions?
A: This law covers registered professional nurses or licensed practical nurses who provide direct patient care and who work for certain health care employers, regardless of whether employment is on a full-time, part-time, per diem, or contract basis. Nurses who provide services to a health care employer through contracts with third party staffing providers, such as nurse registries and temporary employment agencies, or who are engaged to perform services for health care employers as independent contractors are also covered.
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Q: What is a "health care employer"?
A: A "health care employer" is any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or limited liability company which provides health care services in a facility licensed or operated under the public health law, including any facility operated by the state, a political subdivision or a public corporation. This also includes facilities operated by the state, a political subdivision or a public corporation, pursuant to the mental hygiene law, the education law or the correction law. Examples of a health care facility include, but are not limited to, hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient clinics, comprehensive rehabilitation hospitals, residential health care facilities, residential drug and alcohol treatment facilities, adult day health care programs, and diagnostic centers.
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Q: When is mandatory overtime prohibited?
A:
The new law prohibits a health care employer from requiring a nurse to work overtime beyond the predetermined number of hours a nurse has agreed to work and is normally scheduled to work. Regularly scheduled hours may include prescheduled on-call time and the time spent for the purpose of communicating shift reports regarding patient status necessary to ensure patient safety. However, employers are not permitted to substitute on-call time for mandatory overtime. On-call time is considered time spent working for purposes of determining whether a health care employer has required a nurse to work overtime.
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Q: What is meant by “prescheduled on-call time”?
A: On-call time must be prescheduled to be exempt from this law. A health care employer may not place an employee on call in a last-minute effort to cover an open shift. Rather, the nurse must be scheduled for “on-call” in accordance with the facility’s normal scheduling procedures and/or collective bargaining agreement.
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Q: What steps must health care employers take to avoid using mandatory overtime?
A: A health care employer must prudently plan for patient care emergencies and meet routine staffing needs without using mandatory overtime by implementing a Nurse Coverage Plan. Such plan should take into account typical patterns of staff absenteeism due to illness, leave, bereavement and other similar factors, and reflect the health care employer’s typical levels and types of patients served by the health care facility. The Plan must identify and describe as many alternative staffing methods as are available to the health care employer to ensure adequate staffing through means other than use of mandatory overtime including, but not limited to, contracts with per diem nurses, contracts with nurse registries and employment agencies for nursing services, arrangements for assignment of nursing floats, requesting an additional day of work from off-duty employees, and development and posting of a list of nurses seeking voluntary overtime. The health care employer must document all attempts to avoid the use of mandatory overtime and seek alternative staffing.
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Q: Are health care employers required to post a notice relating to the mandatory overtime restrictions?
A:
Yes. Health care employers are required to make their Nurse Coverage Plan readily available to all nursing staff through conspicuously posting the Plan in a physical location accessible to nursing staff, or through other means that will ensure availability to nursing staff, e.g. electronic posting on the employer’s internal web site. The Plan must also be provided to any collective bargaining representative representing nurses at the health care facility, and to the Commissioner of Labor, or his or her designee, upon request.
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Q: When can a health care employer require nurses to work overtime?
A:
Mandated overtime is allowable in response to the following limited circumstances:
- A patient care emergency, as determined by the health care employer, and used only as a last resort after the Nurse Coverage Plan has been implemented;
- A federal, state, or county declaration of emergency in the county or a contiguous county in which the nurse is employed;
- A health care disaster as reasonably determined by the health care employer; or
- An ongoing medical or surgical procedure in which the nurse is actively engaged and whose continued presence through the completion of the procedure is needed to ensure the health and safety of the patient.
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Q: What is considered a “patient care emergency”?
A: A "patient care emergency" means a situation that is unforeseen and could not be prudently planned for, which requires the continued presence of the nurse to provide safe patient care. Before requiring an on-duty nurse to work beyond his or her regularly scheduled work hours to address a patient care emergency, the health care employer must make a good faith effort to have overtime covered on a voluntary basis by utilizing all methods set forth in its Nurse Coverage Plan. The health care employer must document attempts to secure nurse coverage through use of phone logs or other records appropriate to this purpose.
An employer cannot deem a situation a patient care emergency if that circumstance is the result of routine nurse staffing needs due to typical staffing patterns, levels of absenteeism, and time off typically approved by the employer for vacation, holidays, sick leave, and personal leave, unless an acceptable Nurse Coverage Plan has been followed but failed to produce staffing to meet the particular routine nurse staffing need.
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Q: What is a “health care disaster”?
A: A health care disaster means a natural or other type of disaster unexpectedly affecting the county in which the nurse is employed or in a contiguous county that increases the need for health care personnel or requires the maintenance of the existing on-duty personnel to maintain staffing levels necessary to provide adequate health care coverage. Examples of health care disasters include unforeseen events involving multiple serious injuries (e.g. fires, auto accidents, a building collapse), chemical spills or releases, a widespread outbreak of an illness requiring hospitalization for many individuals in the community served by the health care employer, or the occurrence of a riot, disturbance, or other serious event within an institution that increases the level of nursing care needed. A determination that a health care disaster exists shall be made by the health care employer and must be reasonable under the circumstances.
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Q: Can a nurse work overtime voluntarily?
A: Yes, the law does not prohibit a nurse from voluntarily working overtime. A nurse may volunteer for overtime by agreeing to work a particular day or shift over and above his or her regularly scheduled work hours, agreeing to be placed on an on call roster, or agreeing to prescheduled on-call time pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement or other written contract or agreement to work.
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Q: What if my contract or collective bargaining agreement has additional protections against the use of mandatory overtime?
A: Such provisions would still be in effect because the law cannot diminish or waive any rights of any nurse pursuant to any other law, regulation, or collective bargaining agreement.
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Q: What if my employer asked me to waive my rights under this law?
A: A health care employer may not use employee waivers of the protections afforded under Labor Law §167 or this Part as an alternative to compliance with such law or regulation. A health care employer who seeks such a waiver from a nurse in its employ shall be considered to have violated the law.
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Q: What can I do if I was required to work overtime but I do not believe my employer met the requirements of the law?
A: If you believe that your employer mandated overtime in violation of the law, you can file a Mandatory Overtime Complaint form. An electronic version of the form is available here, or you may call 1-518-485-0307 to obtain a hard copy. Submit the completed form by mail or fax to the address shown at the top of the form.
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Q: Who can file a complaint?
A: A complaint may be filed by one nurse, a group of nurses, or the recognized collective bargaining representative of the nurses at a facility. A separate complaint form should be filed for each individual who is mandated to work overtime in violation of the law.
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Q: What happens after I file a Mandatory Overtime Complaint?
A: The NYS DOL’s Division of Labor Standards will conduct an investigation. You will receive an acknowledgement of your complaint and may be contacted in by Labor Standards staff if further information is needed. DOL will also contact the health care employer as part of its investigation. If DOL determines that the complaint is valid, a violation notice will be sent to the employer asking the employer to cease and desist from the use of mandatory overtime.
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Q: Who can I contact if I have questions?
A:
You may contact the Division of Labor Standards at 518-485-0307 or via email at nysdol@labor.state.ny.us
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