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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Michael
J. Herzing |
State Rep. Dan Surra |
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Surra mandatory overtime bill sent to full House
HARRISBURG, April 17 – Nurses and other health-care workers that provide patient care could no longer be routinely required to work beyond their normal shift under legislation approved by the House Labor Relations Committee today and sent to the full House.
The legislation, introduced by state Rep. Dan Surra, D-Elk/Clearfield, would allow hospitals to require overtime for health-care workers in emergencies, and nurses and other health-care workers would still be permitted to volunteer for overtime, but the use of mandatory overtime as a routine staffing strategy in hospitals would no longer be permitted.
“We don’t permit overtime at all for truck drivers or airline pilots,” Surra said. “We are dealing with similar or greater risks when we push our health-care workers past their limit. People’s health is dependent on these workers and, in many cases, their lives.”
Surra’s bill would prohibit hospitals and other health-care facilities from requiring nurses and other patient-care employees to work beyond a regular shift that has already been agreed upon, and nurses and other employees who refuse overtime could not be disciplined, discharged or discriminated against for that reason. Hospitals and other health-care facilities could require mandatory overtime only in the case of emergencies and when other reasonable efforts to provide adequate staffing have been exhausted.
In a recent survey by the American Nurses Association, half of nurses reported working as much as 10 hours beyond their normal work week, and nearly one in five said they work between 60 hours and 80 hours almost every week.
“Forcing nurses to work as much as 16 hours a day and up to 80 hours a week – in some cases double shifts with little or no warning – is not fair to nurses or their families and compromises quality patient care,” Surra said. “In addition, it’s costing our health-care system skilled and experienced health-care professionals and nurses continue to burn out and leave the profession.
“Mandatory overtime simply is not a viable staffing strategy for our health-care facilities or our health-care system.”
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