Mandatory Overtime: States Push for New Legislation

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

from nursing spectrum:

mandatory overtime: states push for new legislation

john leighty

[color=dimgray]masthead date october 10, 2005

[color=#696969]

...state lawmakers tackle issue

while bills to ban mandatory overtime for nurses have stalled in congress for the past five years, individual states have taken up the issue.

laws prohibiting mandatory overtime have passed in eight states, including washington and oregon in the west. at least two dozen other states have pending legislation. other states banning mandatory overtime are new jersey, maryland, maine, minnesota, connecticut, and west virginia....

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Nobody hold their breath. Mandatory OT is forbidden in my state yet it is alive and well. We are all (even part-time staff) required to work 1 "on-call" shift a month or if we wish we can just schedule it as an extra shift. I guess that's how they get away with it, by requiring "on-call" shifts.

Our unit actually was fully staffed a year or so ago and we still had to work extra "on-call" shifts (though they did cut the requirement in half).

My husband has the same requirement where he works as an RN and they are not only fully staffed but have a waiting list of RN's wanting to transfer into the unit, so explain that one.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Seems there are always ways around this sort of legislation, like posted above.

[LeahJet, ASN, RN]

I am really not trying to be controversial but I have NEVER experienced mandatory OT. I have been a nurse for 10 years and I have worked in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Mississippi. I have never even heard of anyone that I know working somewhere that requires it. I have always just worked my 3 twelves a week....sure, people are always calling asking you to come in and everywhere has had staffing issues to some extent..... but you can just say no and life goes on.

In fact, I have found that most facilities are even accomodating with my schedule. I am currently working 2 sixteen hour shifts a week (minimum full time hours for benefits) in order to be with my 7 month old more. The hospital I worked for while pregnant let me drop down to 8 hour shifts at the end of my pregnancy.

Maybe I have just been extremely fortunate to have worked a decade in 4 different states and dodged that bullet.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

The job I am at now is the first one to ever require extras (sorry, extra "on-call" shifts). Several nurses I work with have cut their positions to part-time (.4, .6 or .75 FTE) just so they could work closer to 36 hrs a week because they still have to do the extras. Some of us can't do it because we need the full-time benefits and health insurance costs SOOOO much more if you are not full-time.