Bill Text: NY S04885 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Includes home care services in certain requirements regarding restrictions on consecutive hours of work for nurses, and regarding nurses' refusal of overtime work.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-2)

Status: (Vetoed) 2022-12-30 - VETOED MEMO.190 [S04885 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S04885-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         4885--A
            Cal. No. 1113

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 17, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  SAVINO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor -- reported  favora-
          bly  from  said committee, ordered to first and second report, amended
          on second report, ordered to a third reading, and to be  reprinted  as
          amended, retaining its place in the order of third reading

        AN  ACT to amend the labor law and the education law, in relation to the
          hours worked by nurses

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. Subdivision 1 of section 167 of the labor law, as added by
     2  chapter 493 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
     3    1. When used in this section:
     4    a. "Health care employer"  shall  mean  any  individual,  partnership,
     5  association,  corporation,  limited  liability  company or any person or
     6  group of persons acting directly or indirectly on behalf of  or  in  the
     7  interest  of  the employer, which provides health care services (i) in a
     8  facility licensed or operated pursuant to article twenty-eight and arti-
     9  cle thirty-six of the public health law, including any facility operated
    10  by the state, a political subdivision or a public corporation as defined
    11  by section sixty-six of the general  construction  law,  or  (ii)  in  a
    12  facility  operated  by  the  state,  a political subdivision or a public
    13  corporation as defined by section sixty-six of the general  construction
    14  law, operated or licensed pursuant to the mental hygiene law, the educa-
    15  tion law or the correction law.
    16    b.  "Nurse"  shall  mean a registered professional nurse or a licensed
    17  practical nurse as defined by article one  hundred  thirty-nine  of  the
    18  education law who provides direct patient care.
    19    c.  "Regularly  scheduled  work  hours", including regularly scheduled
    20  home care visits, pre-scheduled on-call time and the time spent for  the
    21  purpose  of  communicating shift reports regarding patient status neces-
    22  sary to ensure patient safety, shall mean  those  hours  and  home  care

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD02742-05-1
        S. 4885--A                          2

     1  visits  a  nurse  has  agreed  to work and is normally scheduled to work
     2  pursuant to the budgeted hours and home care  visits  allocated  to  the
     3  nurse's  position by the health care employer; and if no such allocation
     4  system  exists,  some  other  measure  generally used by the health care
     5  employer to determine when an employee is minimally  supposed  to  work,
     6  consistent  with the collective bargaining agreement, if any. Nothing in
     7  this section shall be construed to permit an  employer  to  use  on-call
     8  time as a substitute for mandatory overtime.
     9    §  2.  Section 6510-e of the education law, as added by chapter 493 of
    10  the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
    11    § 6510-e. Nurses' refusal of overtime work. The refusal of a  licensed
    12  practical  nurse  or a registered professional nurse to work beyond said
    13  nurse's regularly scheduled hours of work, including regularly scheduled
    14  home care visits, shall not solely  constitute  patient  abandonment  or
    15  neglect  except  under  the circumstances provided for under subdivision
    16  three of section one hundred sixty-seven of the labor law.
    17    § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
    18  have become a law.