mandatory overtime

OC_An Khe · Mar 3, 2002

Besides just saying NO! You can contact your congressional representative and Senators as there is federal legislation pending that would outlaw this practise. Look at the threads in Nurse activism/politics.

SoniaNurseRep · Mar 3, 2002

MOT is happening worldwide. We are making great strides in NY...many of contracts limit MOT. Until the MOT is regulated, Nurses need to work under protest whenever mandated. The protest of Assignment form is the answer until the legislators wake up and smell the coffee, or should I say smell the feces.

pebbles, BSN, RN · Mar 3, 2002

Originally posted by SoniaNurseRep
MOT is happening worldwide. We are making great strides in NY...many of contracts limit MOT. Until the MOT is regulated, Nurses need to work under protest whenever mandated. The protest of Assignment form is the answer until the legislators wake up and smell the coffee, or should I say smell the feces.

How do nurses work under protest if they are not under the protection of a union? Do non-union hospitals still have "unsafe workload" type forms? People might fear losing their job or being disciplined for their protest.

-jt · Mar 3, 2002

You put a complaint in writing to your DON & keep a copy for yourself. All it can do is give you some protection should something go wrong that shift, so you arent left holding the bag alone. Your written complaint has no power to change anything. The thing with being a union is that you do have a say in these things and can force change to happen.

As you are, if you put in writing a note to your DON about the unsafe conditions, you really have no protection if they decide to retaliate against you for being a "troublemaker". Become a union and you have the legal rights and protections that go with it......problem solved.

In NY, we dont have staffing/mandatory ot legislation passed into law yet, but nurses in our union (our state nurses assoc) wrote the legislation on it. Its now a bill currently in debate in the state legislature and it has a lot of support. In the meantime, we have our union contracts that specify safe staffing ratios & guidelines and restrict or prohibit mandatory OT completely at our individual facilities.

In order to fill the holes left by not being able to use mandatory OT, our hospitals have had to make themselves more attractive to nurses in other ways to entice them to take the vacant jobs - like improving salary, benefits, pensions, re-instituting flex-time and getting creative with other enticements too. Heres an example of what we're doing in NYC..... (of course we're strongly unionized so we CAN do these things).......

Staten Island University Hospital Nurses and NYSNA ABOLISH mandatory overtime, GUARANTEE safe staffing levels

RNs Approve Contract

STATEN ISLAND, NYC - Oct. 11, 2001 - For the past three months, intolerable working conditions have made it impossible for Staten Island University Hospital to hire even one registered nurse.

RNs are hoping this situation will now change with the approval Wednesday evening of a new three-year contract that calls for improvements in the RNs' working environment. The 840 RNs are represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). Their most recent three-year contract expired March 31.

Under the new contract, after February 1, 2002, management can NO LONGER require nurses to work overtime, except during disasters and severe weather conditions.

"For the past several months," said NYSNA Nursing Representative Laura Kennedy, RN, "instead of hiring enough nurses to meet the hospital's staffing needs, management has been filling vacancies in its schedule by holding nurses over from the previous shift. Such double shifts are exhausting for the nurses and dangerous for patient care."

Also:

** Provisions to maintain safe RN-to-patient staffing throughout the hospital will be enforceable through third party arbitration.

The new contract attempts to correct many of the problems that had been driving veteran nurses away from the hospital and discouraging new nurses from applying:

* Part of the cause of the present nursing shortage is inadequate compensation. Nurses have reported that they want better pay for the work they do. In this contract, the RNs' base salary will increase by a total of 16% over the life of the contract.

* The nurses also won increases in additional pay for longevity and for earning specialty certifications.

* In an effort to retain its more experienced nurses, the hospital has agreed to provide nurses with up to $4,000 per year to pay for health care coverage after they retire.

* Part-timers who work more days than they are originally hired for will receive bonus pay.

* The hospital's requirement that experienced RNs who transfer to new units will work rotating shifts for a year was eliminated.

* RNs working in home care often have to complete an extensive amount of paperwork on their own time. They will now receive 7.5 hours per week for paperwork time.

This is just a sample of the improvements made with this agreement.

"University Hospital administration had been telling us for months that they wanted to become a leading employer for registered nurses," said NYSNA Labor Representatives Elaine Charpentier. "The nurses replied that there were a lot of workplace problems that needed correction first. We hope we've now taken the first step."

With more than 33,000 members, NYSNA is the leading organization for registered nurses in New York state and is one of the largest representatives of RNs for collective bargaining in the nation. A multi-purpose organization, NYSNA fosters high standards for nursing education and practice and works to advance the profession through legislative activity. For more information, call Mark Genovese at NYSNA: 518.782.9400, ext. 353. >>>>>>>

dale mutter · Mar 3, 2002

thanks for all the info guys.Keep the ideas coming.We are not a union, and they tell us we cant leave the patients "unsafe"!!.They are compensating new nurses, but those of us who are there 30 years, get very little!!

fergus51 · Mar 3, 2002

I don't understand why hospitals in the US have mandatory overtime. Here in BC we don't have it because labor laws don't allow it, and our system stil functions. Why do hospital administrators act like the sky would fall if not for mandatory OT?

OC_An Khe · Mar 3, 2002

Fergus,

Not all the hospitals in the US use MOT. Many do not and they function well.

Dale,

Its the hospitals respponsibility to make sure the patient is safe. Unfortuneately MOT is the easiest solution. All the others require some work by administration and a change of philosophy. As long as RNs accept MOT administrators being human(?) will choose the easier route of MOT. You don't say what state you are working in so I don't know if it is a patient abandonement issue if you refuse.

dale mutter · Mar 4, 2002

I work in NJ.I think they do look at it as a pt.Abandonment.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 4, 2002

See:

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14375

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Also:NJ State Nsg Assoc.

http://www.njsna.org/

Scroll down to Governmental Affairs:

Mandatory Overtime Bill - S2093

approved January 2, 2002

Advance Law - 4 pages PDF Format HTML Format

Pamphlet Law - 2 pages PDF Format HTML Format

DethOkay · Mar 4, 2002

Well I have seen the manditory overtime in action. I work a perdiem contract in a KY hospital but have it worded in to my contract they cannot add days or reduce days to my schedule without approval. But the staff nurses have been mandated to stay over up to 4 hours if they are needed. When they asked me I refused stating its not in my contract and I am free to leave at the end of my shift. They gave me a speech about abandonment but i refered them to the contract and told them I did have grounds to walk out for viloation of a contract if they forced me to stay over.......

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Mar 4, 2002

We use it only in an emergency....it has gotten better than it was a few years ago. In Ohio, the labor laws say that you can't be made to stay over your posted hours, but they can PRESCHEDULE MO if their is a staffing shortage.

And they can't write abandonment on your record!