Bill Text: CA AB2155 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Nurses and certified nurse assistants: overtime.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2014-09-30 - Vetoed by Governor. [AB2155 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB2155-Enrolled.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2155 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 21, 2014
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 27, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 19, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ridley-Thomas
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to add Section 19851.2 to the Government Code, relating to
state employees.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2155, Ridley-Thomas. Nurses and certified nurse assistants:
overtime.
Existing law generally requires the workweek of state employees to
be 40 hours, and the workday of state employees to be 8 hours. Under
existing law, it is the policy of the state to avoid the necessity
for overtime work whenever possible.
This bill would, commencing January 1, 2016, prohibit a nurse,
defined as a registered nurse or a licensed vocational nurse, or a
certified nursing assistant (CNA), employed by the State of
California in a state facility, as defined, from being compelled to
work in excess of the regularly scheduled workweek or work shift,
except under certain circumstances, including the occurrence of a
catastrophic event in a state facility. This bill would prohibit a
state facility from discriminating, dismissing, discharging, or
making an employment decision adverse to the nurse or CNA for his or
her refusal to accept those additional hours, and would specify that
a refusal to accept those additional hours does not constitute
patient abandonment or neglect, as specified. The bill would require
management and supervisors to consider employees in a specified order
of priority in order to fulfill the additional staffing needs of a
facility. This bill would enact other related provisions.
The bill would make a statement of legislative intent with regards
to prohibiting mandatory overtime for nurses and CNAs employed by
the State of California in a state facility.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that
there is a process that management and supervisors in a state health
care facility are required to follow to avoid prescheduled and
on-the-spot mandatory overtime of any nurse or certified nursing
assistant (CNA) whose regularly scheduled work shift is complete, and
to prevent circumstances where an employee is stopped at the gate
of, for example, a Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and
California Correctional Health Care Services facility, and is
instructed to return to work at the end of their regularly scheduled
work shift. It is the intent of the Legislature to prohibit a state
facility that employees nurses or CNAs from using mandatory overtime
as a scheduling tool, or as an excuse for fulfilling an operational
need that results from a management failure to properly staff those
state facilities.
SEC. 2. Section 19851.2 is added to the Government Code, to read:
19851.2. (a) As used in this section:
(1) "Nurse" means all classifications of registered nurses
represented by State Bargaining Unit 17, or the Licensed Vocational
Nurse classifications represented by State Bargaining Unit 20.
(2) "CNA" means all Certified Nursing Assistant classifications
represented by State Bargaining Unit 20.
(3) "On call or on standby" means alternative staff who are not
currently working on the premises of the facility and who satisfy
either of the following criteria:
(A) Are compensated for his or her availability.
(B) Has agreed to be available to come to the facility on short
notice, if the need arises.
(4) "Facility" means any facility that provides clinically related
health services that is operated by the Division of Correctional
Health Care Services of the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the
State Department of State Hospitals, the Department of Veteran
Affairs, and the State Department of Developmental Services in which
a nurse or CNA works as an employee of the state.
(5) "Management or supervisor" means any person or group of
persons acting directly or indirectly on behalf of, or in the
interest of, the facility, whose duties and responsibilities include
facilitating staffing needs.
(6) "Emergency situation" means any of the following:
(A) An unforeseeable declared national, state, or municipal
emergency.
(B) A highly unusual or extraordinary event that is unpredictable
or unavoidable and that substantially affects providing needed health
care services or increases the need for health care services, which
includes any of the following:
(i) An act of terrorism.
(ii) A natural disaster.
(iii) A widespread disease outbreak.
(iv) A warden, superintendent, or executive director-declared
emergency, or severe emergency that necessitates the assistance of an
outside agency.
(b) A facility shall not require a nurse or CNA to work in excess
of a regularly scheduled workweek or work shift. A nurse or CNA may
volunteer or agree to work hours in addition to his or her regularly
scheduled workweek or work shift but the refusal by a nurse or CNA to
accept those additional hours shall not constitute either of the
following:
(1) Grounds for discrimination, dismissal, discharge, or any other
penalty or employment decision adverse to the nurse or CNA.
(2) Patient abandonment or neglect, except under circumstances
provided for in the Nursing Practice Act (Chapter 6 (commencing with
Section 2700) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code).
(c) In order to avoid the use of mandatory overtime as a
scheduling tool, management and supervisors shall consider employees
to fulfill the additional staffing needs of a facility in the
following priority order:
(1) First priority shall be given to employees who volunteer or
agree to work hours in addition to his or her regularly scheduled
workweek or work shift.
(2) Second priority shall be given to individuals who are
part-time or intermittent employees.
(3) Third priority shall be given to employees who are on call or
on standby.
(d) This section shall not apply in any of the following
situations:
(1) To a nurse or CNA participating in a 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.
(2) If a catastrophic event occurs in a facility and both of the
following factors apply:
(A) The catastrophic event results in such a large number of
patients in need of immediate medical treatment that the facility is
incapable of providing sufficient nurses or CNAs to attend to the
patients without resorting to mandatory overtime.
(B) The catastrophic event is an unanticipated and nonrecurring
event.
(3) If an emergency situation occurs.
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the
Nursing Practice Act (Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 2700) of
Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code), the Vocational
Nursing Practice Act (Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 2840) of
Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code), or a registered
nurse's duty under the standards of competent performance.
(f) Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude a
facility from hiring part-time or intermittent employees.
(g) Nothing in this section shall prevent a facility from
providing employees with more protections against mandatory overtime
than the minimum protections established pursuant to this section.
(i) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2016.
