Includes home care services in certain requirements regarding restrictions on consecutive hours of work for nurses, and regarding nurses' refusal of overtime work.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A181A
SPONSOR: Gunther TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law and the education law, in relation to the
hours worked by nurses
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To restrict consecutive hours of required work by nurses in the home
care setting except in emergencies; does not prohibit a nurse from
voluntarily working overtime.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill amends section 167 of the Labor Law to add a
facility licensed or operated pursuant to Article 36 of the Public
Health Law to the definition of "employer". Adds regularly scheduled
home care visits to the definition of "regularly scheduled work hours".
Adds home care visits to the existing law which provides that no health
care employer shall require a nurse to work more than that nurse's regu-
larly scheduled work hours or home care visits.
Section two of the bill amends section 6510-e of the Education Law to
include regularly scheduled home care visits.
Section three of the bill establishes the effective date
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
THE AMENDED VERSION MAKES TECHNICAL CHANGES TO EFFECTUATE THE INTENT OF
THE BILL.
JUSTIFICATION:
Homecare nurses work in a demanding, stressful environment where proper
decision making is a critical function of the job. In 2008, legislation
limiting consecutive hours of work by nurses in other settings was
passed and signed into law. That legislation did not include homecare
settings (article thirty-six). Through consultation with the home care
industry, this language was developed to limit the consecutive hours of
work by nurses in the homecare setting. Understaffing has resulted in
nurses working longer hours caring for sicker, more needy patients, and,
in greater need of suitable rest. Unscheduled, mandatory overtime is an
unfair, additional burden placed on a workforce, primarily female, with
their own family and child care responsibilities to address. This bill
would not prohibit voluntary overtime assignment, but would allow nurses
to take care of their own family needs, and their own rest needs, with-
out concerns for charges of patient abandonment or patient neglect. This
bill is intended to improve the health care environment for patients,
and the working environment for nurses and their families.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-20: A3756 referred to Labor/S5678 referred to Labor
2017-18: A876 referred to Labor
2015-16: A1127 referred to Labor/S3100 referred to Labor
2013-14: A1632 referred to Labor/S1673 referred to Labor
2011-12: A410 referred to Labor/S5154 referred to Labor
2009-10: A6492 introduced/Died in Assembly Codes/S5016 Died Senate
Finance
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after becoming law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
181--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GUNTHER, COLTON, PERRY, ENGLEBRIGHT, STECK, COOK,
ABINANTI, BARRON -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. GOTTFRIED, HEVESI,
McDONOUGH, RA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Labor --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the labor law and the education law, in relation to the
hours worked by nurses
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 167 of the labor law, as added by
2 chapter 493 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
3 1. When used in this section:
4 a. "Health care employer" shall mean any individual, partnership,
5 association, corporation, limited liability company or any person or
6 group of persons acting directly or indirectly on behalf of or in the
7 interest of the employer, which provides health care services (i) in a
8 facility licensed or operated pursuant to article twenty-eight and arti-
9 cle thirty-six of the public health law, including any facility operated
10 by the state, a political subdivision or a public corporation as defined
11 by section sixty-six of the general construction law, or (ii) in a
12 facility operated by the state, a political subdivision or a public
13 corporation as defined by section sixty-six of the general construction
14 law, operated or licensed pursuant to the mental hygiene law, the educa-
15 tion law or the correction law.
16 b. "Nurse" shall mean a registered professional nurse or a licensed
17 practical nurse as defined by article one hundred thirty-nine of the
18 education law who provides direct patient care.
19 c. "Regularly scheduled work hours", including regularly scheduled
20 home care visits, pre-scheduled on-call time and the time spent for the
21 purpose of communicating shift reports regarding patient status neces-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02742-04-1
A. 181--A 2
1 sary to ensure patient safety, shall mean those hours and home care
2 visits a nurse has agreed to work and is normally scheduled to work
3 pursuant to the budgeted hours and home care visits allocated to the
4 nurse's position by the health care employer; and if no such allocation
5 system exists, some other measure generally used by the health care
6 employer to determine when an employee is minimally supposed to work,
7 consistent with the collective bargaining agreement, if any. Nothing in
8 this section shall be construed to permit an employer to use on-call
9 time as a substitute for mandatory overtime.
10 § 2. Section 6510-e of the education law, as added by chapter 493 of
11 the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
12 § 6510-e. Nurses' refusal of overtime work. The refusal of a licensed
13 practical nurse or a registered professional nurse to work beyond said
14 nurse's regularly scheduled hours of work, including regularly scheduled
15 home care visits, shall not solely constitute patient abandonment or
16 neglect except under the circumstances provided for under subdivision
17 three of section one hundred sixty-seven of the labor law.
18 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
19 have become a law.
