BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2155
Page 1
GOVERNOR'S VETO
AB 2155 (Ridley-Thomas)
As Amended August 19, 2014
2/3 vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |53-24|(May 28, 2014) |SENATE: |25-10|(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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|ASSEMBLY: |56-22|(August 27, | | | |
| | |2014) | | | |
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Original Committee Reference: L. & E.
SUMMARY : Prohibits, beginning January 1, 2016, mandatory overtime
for registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), or
certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who are employed in state
hospitals and facilities. Specifically, this bill :
1)Defines a "nurse" as all classifications of registered nurses
represented by State Bargaining Unit (BU) 17, or the LVN
classifications represented by BU 20.
2)Defines a "certified nursing assistant" as all CNA classifications
represented by BU 20.
3)Defines "on call or standby" to mean alternative staff who are not
currently working on the premises of the facility and who satisfy
certain criteria, as specified.
4)Defines a "facility" as a facility providing clinically related
health services that is operated by specified state departments in
which a nurse or CNA works as an employee of the state.
5)Defines "emergency situation" as an unforeseeable declared
national, state, or municipal emergency or a highly unusual event
that is unpredictable or unavoidable that affects the health care
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services, as specified.
6)Prohibits a facility from requiring a nurse or CNA to work in
excess of a regularly scheduled workweek or work shift, except as
provided.
7)Authorizes 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.
8)Requires management and supervisors, in order to avoid the use of
mandatory overtime, to consider employees to fulfill the
additional staffing needs in a specified order of priority.
9)Provides that the overtime prohibition does not apply in the
following situations:
a) To any nurse or CNA participating in a surgical procedure,
as specified;
b) If a catastrophic event occurs in a facility where both of
the following apply:
i) 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,
ii) The catastrophic event is an unanticipated and
nonrecurring event.
c) If an emergency situation occurs.
10)Specifies that nothing in these provisions shall be construed to
do any of the following:
a) Affect the Nursing Practice Act, the Vocational Nursing
Practice Act, or a registered nurse's duty under the standards
of competent performance.
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b) Prevent the hiring of part-time or intermittent employees.
c) Prevent a facility from providing more protections against
mandatory overtime than the minimum protections established by
this bill.
The Senate amendments add legislative intent language; define and
clarify various terms for purposes of the bill; establish a priority
order for the scheduling of nurses; delay the effective date of
bill's provisions until January 1, 2016; and, make other technical
and clarifying changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes, as the general policy of the state, the workweek of
state employees to be 40 hours, and the workday of state employees
eight hours, except that workweeks and workdays of a different
number of hours may be established in order to meet the varying
needs of the different state agencies.
2)States that it is the policy of the state to avoid the necessity
for overtime work whenever possible. This policy does not
restrict the extension of regular working-hour schedules on an
overtime basis in those activities and agencies where it is
necessary to carry on the state business properly during a
manpower shortage.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
1)Net costs of approximately $1.2 million annually to the Department
of State Hospitals (General Fund). Unknown staffing costs
annually to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and
Department of Veteran Affairs (General Fund).
2)During 2013, the Department of State Hospitals mandated a total of
53,973 overtime hours for registered nurses and licensed
vocational nurses. The total cost of this overtime pay calculated
at the mid-step was $2.33 million. It is estimated that an
additional 23.5 nurses and 3.9 LVN's would need to be hired if
mandatory overtime was eliminated at an estimated cost of $3.5
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million. The actual cost would likely be less since presumably
some nurses would voluntarily accept to work the overtime hours.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "Mandatory overtime is the
practice of hospitals and health care institutions to maintain
adequate numbers of staff nurses through forced overtime, usually
with a total of 12 to 16 hours worked, and with as little as one
hour's notice. This bill seeks to ban mandatory overtime for public
sector RNs, LVNs, and CNAs. The use of mandatory overtime for
nurses in the private sector has been banned since 2001 through wage
orders from the Industrial Welfare Commission. State and public
sector nurses were exempted from this order."
"Mandatory overtime may cause or lead to increased stress on the
job, less patient comfort and mental and physical fatigue that can
contribute to errors and 'near-misses' with medications and
case-related procedures. The practice of mandatory overtime ignores
the responsibilities nurses may have at home with children, other
family members, or other obligations. Being forced into excessive
overtime can cause an exhausted RN to practice unsafe patient care,
jeopardizing her nursing licensure status."
According to information provided by the author, the states of West
Virginia, Illinois, Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey,
Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, Alaska and Massachusetts all have laws
prohibiting the use of mandatory overtime as a general staffing
tool.
The author concludes, "AB 2155 is needed to promote an optimum
quality of patient care, decrease potential workplace or health and
safety errors; and increase the ability of the state in its
recruitment and retention of nurses."
This bill is similar to AB 1184 (Koretz) of 2005, which was vetoed
by the Governor. In his veto message, Governor Schwarzenegger
stated, in part:
California is facing a nursing shortage and there are not
enough nurses and certified nursing assistants to provide
coverage in State hospitals and health care facilities.
Because the State has difficulty recruiting a sufficient
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number of these dedicated professionals for its hospitals
and other health care facilities, the State relies on
mandatory overtime staff to meet minimum level-of-care
staffing requirements. My administration has made the
training and recruitment of new nursing professionals a
high priority, with the added goal of filling vacant
nursing positions and reducing the resulting overtime
throughout state service.
Additionally, the Ralph C. Dills Act requires that the
state employer and the exclusive representative of
rank-and-file state employees meet and confer in good
faith over employee wages, hours of work, and terms and
conditions of employment. This bill would unilaterally
establish provisions governing hours of work for
represented health care employees, thereby circumventing
the collective bargaining process and the good faith
collective bargaining agreements negotiated between the
parties. If the State is to have good faith collective
bargaining, then wages, hours and terms and conditions of
employment must remain subject to negotiation.
There is no registered opposition to this bill.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE :
"This bill would prohibit mandatory overtime for nurses in state
facilities. This measure covers matters more appropriately settled
through the collective bargaining process."
Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957 FN:
0005681