[CCHADWI]

New Jersey is the second state to enact the statute.

Trenton, NJ.- After a five-year battle, New Jersey has a state law barring hospitals and nursing homes from forcing health care employees to work overtime except in emergencies.

Who does the law affect? The law covers all New Jersey hourly workers who provide patient care or clinical services, including nurses, nurses' aides, pharmacists, therapists, technicians who do tests and similar workers, but not doctors, who work at hospitals, nursing homes and in home health care.

Nurses and union officials said the law, only the second in the nation, should improve patient safety and prevent mistakes that people who have been on the job for up to 16 hours can commit.

"It's really hard when you're doing a 10-hour (day) shift to be told when you come in you may have to stay until 7:30 the next morning," said Noreen Malloy, a registered nurse at Bayonne Medical Center for 33 years.

With the law that went into effect Tuesday, New Jersey joins only Washington state in banning mandatory overtime at health facilities. West Virginia lawmakers passed a ban that awaits the governor's signature. At least six other states have debated such legislation, said Mary MacDonald, director of the AFT Healthcare union.

The New Jersey Hospital Association concedes hospitals will have a tough time obeying the law because of patient loads and demands on hospitals change daily and they don't have enough staff.

"Our hospitals are gearing up to deal with it," association spokesman Ron Czajkowski said. "Everybody will try their best, but it will be a test."

Unions, the New Jersey State Nurses Association and consumer groups started lobbying for the law in 1999.

Health facilities pushed for provisions to give them flexibility and limit which workers the law would cover. Hospitals got flexibility in what "emergency" means - when they can make workers stay on duty after they exhaust efforts to find volunteers or call in per-diem nurses.

"Now it allows a hospital dealing with major trauma - a casino bus accident or a snowstorm - to declare an emergency," instead of requiring a state or federal declaration, Czaijkowski said. "That's acceptable to us."

If workers made to work overtime complain to the state Department of Labor, the state can fine a facility $1,000 for each day it breaks the rules. The whistleblowers cannot be fired or disciplined.

Nurses said the improved working conditions should draw personnel who had quit in frustration back to the bedsides, helping to reduce staff shortages.

The average vanancy rate for nurses at New Jersey hospitals has fallen from 14 percent three years ago to 9 percent, according to the hospital association. That's due to hospitals' increased efforts to recruit and retain nurses.


Article in, The Oklahoman, Sunday, Feb. 22nd, 2004
By Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press Writer

[gaucho]

Greetings, I just joined this site,so am not up to speed on all the threads quite yet. What caught my eye was the OT issue. Here in MA. our legislature passed a law last yr. that banned LTC facilties from offering OT to pool nurses who hadn't worked a 40hr week there. Since when does the Gov't. step in to lower a much needed profession's wages? That was the last I worked in LTC, not that I needed a reason to stop. This country is supposed to be founded on the principle of supply & demand, except when it comes to nursing apparently. Has any other state experienced this? Sincerely, Neil Fahey RN, CLNC

[kegbat]

I'm not from NJ but I believe that article is refering to mandatory OT...the kind that one CAN NOT refuse. Been there and done that while working in corrections. Have made myself a promise that I will never again work in a situation where there is mandatory OT. If I want to work overtime I will decide that but no one has the right to tell me that I must work,(unless an emergengy has been declared)and that does not mean that "so and so" called of work 5 hours ago. Mandatory and voluntary are 2 separate issues.

[medi]

The law sounds nice but what really happens if your replacement isn't available? You can't leave because that would be patient abandonment. What if they don't have someone to do the next shift??

[CCHADWI]

That's a good question Sara. Do you have to wait until they find someone to cover the shift then or what? Surly this issue was one of the first that came up when they were discussing this. What do most do as of now in that situation?

[medi]

Charles in most cases if the unit director or house supervisor can't find a replacement you pitch a fit & try to demand they take the shift themselves then (which they won't of course) and you're stuck there another shift in most cases whether you're up to it or not. Right folks?

[kegbat]

In the last 2 places that I've worked if your replacement does not show up the Charge nurse for the oncoming shift takes the Pt assignment until the Supervisor finds someone to cover. The Charge nurses never had assignments..they just helped out where ever needed.

[oh hd rn]

dontcha just love it when your manager walks up to you and says "your replacement just called off and you're staying another 8 hours..." and then walks out the door at 5pm to go home to her kids????? even though the union got the hospital to specically prohit mandated OT in the contract, the managers are still doing it...any suggestions?

[CCHADWI]

Having a manager walk out to go home, and make you stay and work like that is insane. In my opinion, I think that is morally wrong. I don't think a manager should ask anyone to do something they wouldn't do themselves. Now, if that happened every once in a while, and other times a manager stayed, I'd be all right with that. If it's happening on a consistent basis, I'd be furious.

[1mg.epi]

Once upon a time we had a manager that did that. She did not last long. Not we have a manager that does it so much the nurses that once complained about having to stay, started to offer to stay. I tell ya, a managers leadership skill make all the difference, and can set the tone of the unit.