Assembly Bill A1903

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   1903
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             January 14, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  PAULIN,  JACOBSON, REYES, BENEDETTO, HEVESI,
   EACHUS, DeSTEFANO, SHRESTHA, RAMOS, STECK -- read once and referred to
   the Committee on Labor
 
 AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation  to  restricting  consecutive
   hours of work for health care workers

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. The section heading and subdivisions  1,  2,  3  and  4  of
 section  167  of the labor law, as amended by chapter 815 of the laws of
 2022, paragraph (c) of subdivision 3 as amended by  chapter  27  of  the
 laws of 2023, are amended to read as follows:
   Restrictions  on  consecutive hours of work for nurses AND HEALTH CARE
 WORKERS. 1. When used in this section:
   a. "Health care employer"  shall  mean  any  individual,  partnership,
 association,  corporation,  limited  liability  company or any person or
 group of persons acting directly or indirectly on behalf of  or  in  the
 interest  of  the employer, which provides health care services (i) in a
 facility licensed or operated pursuant to article  twenty-eight  of  the
 public health law, including any facility operated by the state, a poli-
 tical  subdivision  or a public corporation as defined by section sixty-
 six of the general construction law, or (ii) in a facility  operated  by
 the state, a political subdivision or a public corporation as defined by
 section  sixty-six of the general construction law, operated or licensed
 pursuant to the mental hygiene law, the education  law,  the  correction
 law, or section five hundred four of the executive law.
   b.  "Nurse"  shall  mean a registered professional nurse or a licensed
 practical nurse as defined by article one  hundred  thirty-nine  of  the
 education law who provides direct patient care.
   c.  "Regularly  scheduled work hours", including pre-scheduled on-call
 time and the time spent for the purpose of communicating  shift  reports
 regarding  patient status necessary to ensure patient safety, shall mean
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD04743-01-5
              

 A. 1903                             2
 
 those hours a nurse OR HEALTH CARE WORKER has  agreed  to  work  and  is
 normally  scheduled  to work pursuant to the budgeted hours allocated to
 the nurse's OR HEALTH CARE WORKER'S position by the health care  employ-
 er; and if no such allocation system exists, some other measure general-
 ly  used  by  the  health care employer to determine when an employee is
 minimally supposed to work, consistent with  the  collective  bargaining
 agreement,  if any. Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit
 an employer to use on-call time as a substitute for mandatory overtime.
   D. "HEALTH CARE WORKER" SHALL MEAN PERSONNEL EMPLOYED BY OR CONTRACTED
 TO WORK FOR A HEALTH CARE EMPLOYER WHO HAVE AN EFFECT UPON THE  DELIVERY
 OF  QUALITY  CARE  TO  PATIENTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO UNLICENSED
 ASSISTIVE PERSONNEL, SERVICE, MAINTENANCE,  CLERICAL,  PROFESSIONAL  AND
 TECHNICAL  WORKERS,  AND  ALL OTHER HEALTH CARE WORKERS. FOR PURPOSES OF
 THIS  SECTION,  DOCTORS,  INTERNS,  RESIDENTS  AND  FACILITY  MANAGEMENT
 PERSONNEL,  AS  WELL AS ANY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY SECURITY PERSONNEL NOT
 PROVIDING HEALTH CARE SERVICES, SHALL NOT BE  CONSIDERED A  HEALTH  CARE
 WORKER.
   2.  a.  Notwithstanding  any  other  provision  of  law no health care
 employer shall require a nurse OR HEALTH CARE WORKER to work  more  than
 that  nurse's  OR  HEALTH  CARE WORKER'S regularly scheduled work hours,
 except pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
   b. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a nurse OR HEALTH CARE WORK-
 ER from voluntarily working overtime.
   3. The limitations provided for in this section shall not apply in the
 case of:
   a. a health care disaster, such as a natural or other type of disaster
 that increases the need for health care personnel, unexpectedly  affect-
 ing  the  county in which the nurse OR HEALTH CARE WORKER is employed or
 in a contiguous county; or
   b. a federal, state or county declaration of emergency  in  effect  in
 the  county in which the nurse OR HEALTH CARE WORKER is employed or in a
 contiguous county; or
   c. where a health care employer  determines  there  is  an  emergency,
 necessary  to  provide safe patient care. For the purposes of this para-
 graph, "emergency", including an unanticipated  staffing  emergency,  is
 defined  as  an unforeseen event that could not be prudently planned for
 by an employer and does not regularly occur; or
   d. an ongoing medical or surgical procedure  in  which  the  nurse  OR
 HEALTH  CARE  WORKER  is  actively  engaged and whose continued presence
 through the completion of the procedure is needed to ensure  the  health
 and safety of the patient.
   4.  The  provisions of this section are intended as a remedial measure
 to protect the public health and the quality of patient care, and  shall
 not  be construed to diminish or waive any rights of any nurse OR HEALTH
 CARE WORKER  pursuant  to  any  other  law,  regulation,  or  collective
 bargaining agreement.
   §  2.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
 have become a law.