BILL NUMBER: S4465
SPONSOR: MAYER
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to restricting consecutive
hours of work for health care workers
 
PURPOSE:
To extend protections against mandatory overtime for frontline health-
care workers, except in limited, time-bound, emergency circumstances.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends section 167 of the labor law to extend existing
prohibitions on mandatory overtime for nurses to cover other health care
workers. Provides exceptions for an emergency situation where the safety
of the patient requires mandatory overtime and when there is no reason-
able alternative.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date
 
JUSTIFICATION:
New York is facing a crisis of good healthcare jobs, leading to extreme
shortages of frontline healthcare workers. While voluntary overtime
shifts are often welcome opportunities to earn additional income,
mandating frontline healthcare workers to work beyond their regularly
scheduled hours is dangerous for patients and contributes to poor work-
ing conditions faced by healthcare workers.
Protections against this practice are already in place for New York's
nurses, however, the rest of the direct care team has been left behind.
This legislation would extend this important protection to the full
patient care team, ensuring that healthcare workers are protected
against mandatory overtime except in the case of a genuine emergency
situation where the safety of the patient requires its use and when
there is no reasonable staffing alternative.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
S9111/A9958 (2023/24): Died in labor
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Sixty days after it shall have become a law.