Assembly Bill A8615

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   8615
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               May 22, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by M. of A. BRONSON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
   tee on Labor
 
 AN ACT to amend the labor law and the education law, in relation to  the
   hours worked by nurses in home care settings
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 167 of the labor law,  as  amended
 by chapter 815 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read as follows:
   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 AND ARTI-
 CLE THIRTY-SIX of the public health law, including any facility operated
 by the state, a political 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 educa-
 tion law, the correction law, or section five hundred four of the execu-
 tive 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  REGULARLY  SCHEDULED
 HOME  CARE VISITS, pre-scheduled on-call time and the time spent for the
 purpose of communicating shift reports regarding patient  status  neces-
 sary  to  ensure  patient  safety,  shall mean those hours AND HOME CARE
 VISITS a nurse has agreed to work and  is  normally  scheduled  to  work
 pursuant  to  the  budgeted  hours AND HOME CARE VISITS allocated to the
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD13095-01-5
              

 A. 8615                             2
 
 nurse's position by the health care employer; and if no such  allocation
 system  exists,  some  other  measure  generally 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.
   §  2.  Section 6510-e of the education law, as added by chapter 493 of
 the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
   § 6510-e. Nurses' refusal of overtime work. The refusal of a  licensed
 practical  nurse  or a registered professional nurse to work beyond said
 nurse's regularly scheduled hours of work, INCLUDING REGULARLY SCHEDULED
 HOME CARE VISITS, shall not solely  constitute  patient  abandonment  or
 neglect  except  under  the circumstances provided for under subdivision
 three of section one hundred sixty-seven of the labor law.
   § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
 have become a law.