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American Payroll Association (APA) Basic Guide to Payroll, 2013 Edition
It's more important than ever to be in compliance with payroll laws and regulations! How do you stay in compliance and avoid penalties? The APA Basic Guide to Payroll is written to make understanding the laws and regulations as easy as possible. And this single-volume guide is filled with tools to help you apply the law and make proper calculations – with ease!
Massachusetts law includes a provision barring mandatory overtime for nurses. The provision is part of a larger measure that is intended to improve the quality of health care and reduce costs through increased transparency, efficiency and innovation.
The law prohibits hospitals from requiring mandatory overtime except in the case of an emergency situation where the safety of the patient requires its use and when there is no reasonable alternative. A nurse can not be allowed to work more than 16 consecutive hours worked in a 24 hour period. In the event a nurse works 16 consecutive hours, that nurse must be given at least eight consecutive hours of off-duty time immediately after the worked overtime. The law would not impact collective bargaining agreements.
Under the new law, a health care facility must, before it requires mandatory overtime, make a good faith effort to have overtime covered on a voluntary basis. Mandatory overtime can not be used as a practice for providing appropriate staffing for the level of patient care required. Hospitals will also be required to report on all mandatory overtime used and the circumstances surrounding the requirement, with such documents being public record.
The refusal of a nurse to accept work in excess of the limitations provided can not be grounds for discrimination, dismissal, discharge or any other employment decision.
“Mandatory overtime” under the law is defined to mean any hours worked by a nurse in a hospital setting to deliver patient care, beyond the predetermined and regularly scheduled number of hours that the hospital and nurse have agreed that the employee shall work, provided that in no case shall such predetermined and regularly scheduled number of hours exceed 12 hours in any 24 hour period. (Ch. 244 (S. 2400), L. 2012, enacted August 6, 2012.)
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