BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 840 (Ridley-Thomas) - Nurses and certified nurse assistants:
overtime
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|Version: February 26, 2015 |Policy Vote: P.E. & R. 3 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 840 would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2017,
mandatory overtime for registered nurses (RNs), licensed
vocational nurses (LVNs), or certified nursing assistants (CNAs)
who are employed in state hospitals and facilities, as
specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
Net General Fund costs in the high hundreds of thousands
of dollars annually to the Department of State Hospitals
(DSH).
Unknown annual net costs to the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the Department of
Veterans' Affairs. (General Fund).
AB 840 (Ridley-Thomas) Page 1 of
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During 2014, DSH mandated a total of 36,712 overtime hours for
RNs and 5,402 overtime hours for LVNs. The total cost of this
overtime pay calculated at the mid-step was $33 million. It is
estimated that an additional 19 nurses and 3 LVN's would need to
be hired if mandatory overtime was eliminated at an estimated
cost of $2.6 million. Comparing the current cost of overtime
with the estimated costs of hiring the new staff that this bill
would require indicates that this bill could have an annual net
fiscal impact of at least $700,000. The actual cost would likely
be less since presumably some nurses would voluntarily accept to
work the overtime hours.
Background: California's state hospitals primarily serve patients through
DSH, CDCR, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. State
hospitals and facilities in remote locations typically encounter
difficulties in the recruitment and retention of nurses.
Proposed Law:
This bill would do all of the following:
Prohibit a facility from requiring a nurse or CAN, as
defined, to work in excess of a regularly scheduled
workweek or work shift, except as provided.
Authorize a nurse or CNA to volunteer to work extra
hours, but the refusal by a nurse or CNA to work such hours
shall not be grounds for discrimination, dismissal,
discharge, or other penalty or patient abandonment or
neglect, as specified.
Provide that the overtime prohibition does not apply in
the following situations:
o To any nurse or CNA participating in a
surgical procedure, as specified.
o If a catastrophic event occurs in a facility
AB 840 (Ridley-Thomas) Page 2 of
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where both of the following apply:
§ 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; and,
§ The catastrophic event is an
unanticipated and nonrecurring event.
o If an emergency situation (as defined) occurs.
Specify that nothing in these provisions shall be
construed to do any of the following:
o Affect the Nursing Practice Act, the
Vocational Nursing Practice Act, or a RN's duty under
the standards of competent performance.
o Prevent the hiring of part-time or
intermittent employees.
o Prevent a facility from providing more
protections against mandatory overtime than the
minimum protections established by this bill.
Related
Legislation:
SB 780 (Mendoza, 2015) is substantially similar to this
AB 840 (Ridley-Thomas) Page 3 of
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bill and prohibits mandatory overtime for state employee
psychiatric technicians. SB 780 is currently in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 2155 (Ridley-Thomas, 2014) would have prohibited
mandatory overtime for RNs, LVNs, and CNAs. The bill was
vetoed by the Governor.
AB 1184 (Koretz, 2005) was similar to AB 2155 and was
also vetoed, by Governor Schwarzenegger.
Staff
Comments: MOUs for state employee RNs, LVNs, and CNAs contain
complex requirements relative to the assignment of overtime and
the imposition of mandatory overtime. In general, employees may
volunteer for overtime, and the employer may use intermittent or
contract employees if necessary if volunteers are not available.
The MOUs limit the amount of overtime that may be mandated in a
month's time, and define the types of emergency situations that
may necessitate mandated overtime. The MOU requirements may be
examined in detail on the website of the Department of Human
Resources at
http://www.calhr.ca.gov/state-hr-professionals/Pages/bargaining-c
ontracts.aspx.
In 2015, the Little Hoover Commission conducted hearings and
investigations into the use of mandatory overtime for nurses and
psychiatric technicians in state departments. A report of the
findings of the commission was released in 2016 and is available
on the Commission's website:
http://www.lhc.ca.gov/studies/231/Report231.pdf . The Commission
concluded that the State relies heavily on overtime to meet
staffing needs and 80 percent of the time, that overtime is
voluntary. However, staff also was forced to work 417,226 hours
of overtime in 2014-15.
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The report also notes that in 2001, the state revised the wage
order that covers employees working in health care facilities,
limiting staff that agrees to alternative work schedules to no
more than 12 hours of work in a 24-hour period. After the wage
order amendment, private sector health facilities moved toward
12-hour shifts, which significantly reduced overtime, whether
voluntary or mandatory. The wage order, however, does not apply
to employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, which
includes all state nurses.
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