New York is now one of a handful of states to put an end to forcing nurses to work overtime. Nurse members from the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) have been working with several other unions for years to lobby their state legislators to ban mandatory overtime, often sharing their stories of being forced to work double shifts.

On June 18, Gov. David Paterson and the state Assembly and Senate agreed on a measure to end mandatory overtime. When the measure takes effect on July 1, 2009, hospitals will no longer be able to require nurses to work more than their regular schedule, except in emergencies or healthcare disasters.

"Mandatory overtime will no longer be an acceptable tool for managers to use to staff our hospitals," says Anne Goldman, special representative for the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers. "The abuses of staff have occurred for far too long, and now it is time to have healthcare managers do the job of staffing. This is a great victory for patients and the nursing workforce."

For several years, a coalition of nurses from PEF, NYSUT, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the Nurse Alliance of New York State/SEIU 1199, gathered in Albany, N.Y., to urge their lawmakers to pass measures to end mandatory overtime.

"This is long overdue and will go a long way toward fixing a broken healthcare system," says PEF president Ken Brynien, who is also an AFT vice president. "Mandatory overtime forced far too many nurses to leave their calling. At least 14 other states have passed laws or adopted new regulations to protect the public by limiting the number of hours caregivers can work. Now, New York can be added to the list of states committed to protecting patient safety."

June 27, 2008