Minimum nurse staffing ratios in hospitals, registered nurses’ right to refuse a work assignment, prohibiting mandatory overtime for registered nurses, and providing a penalty

In addition, the bill provides that registered nurses have the right to refuse a work assignment if the nurse, in good faith and in the nurse’s professional judgment, finds that the nurse is unable to fulfill the assignment without compromising patient safety or the nurse’s license. The bill creates a cause of action for a nurse against a hospital that disciplines, discharges, retaliates, discriminates, takes adverse action, or files a complaint with a disciplinary agency against a nurse that refuses to complete an assignment under those circumstances.

Under current law, subject to certain exceptions, an employer must pay an employee who receives an hourly wage one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week, but current law, with exceptions under child labor laws, does not prohibit an employer from requiring an employee to work in excess of 40 hours per week.

This bill prohibits a hospital from requiring a registered nurse to work overtime. Under the bill, overtime is work in excess of any of the following: 1) a regularly scheduled predetermined shift immediately following that shift; 2) 12 hours in a 24-hour period; or 3) 40 hours in a scheduled workweek.

The prohibition on mandatory overtime under the bill does not apply in cases in which the registered nurse is involved in an ongoing surgical procedure, the registered nurse’s presence is essential to the health and safety of a patient, the nurse is working in a critical care unit, or a public health emergency has been declared by the president of the United States or the governor, or during periods of adverse weather, catastrophe, or widespread illness within the hospital.

A registered nurse who is discharged or discriminated against for refusing to work overtime or for opposing a practice prohibited under the bill, for filing a complaint or attempting to enforce a right provided under the bill, or for testifying or assisting in any action or proceeding to enforce such a right may file a complaint with the Department of Workforce Development, and DWD must process the complaint in the same manner that employment discrimination complaints are processed under current law.