Protecting Pennsylvania Health Care Workers
On July 1, 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor began enforcing Act 102 of 2008. This law will greatly improve workplace and patient safety in the Commonwealth. The Public Services Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is sending this notice to inform you of the Act’s implementation and its impact on Direct Care Providers.
Specifically, Act 102 prohibits a health care facility from requiring employees to work more than agreed to, predetermined and regularly scheduled work shifts. Employees covered under the Act are individuals involved in direct patient care or clinical care services who receive an hourly wage or who are classified as nonsupervisory employees for collective bargaining purposes.
Act 102 will not prevent an employee from working more than an 8-hour shift if the shift is agreed to and regularly scheduled. It does not prevent overtime for on-call time, if certain unforeseeable emergency situations occur or if an employee must complete a patient care procedure already in progress at the end of a regularly scheduled shift and the employee’s absence would have an adverse affect on the patient.
Employees may also agree to work overtime; however, an employer may not retaliate against an employee who refuses to work overtime. The Industry’s Bureau of Labor Law Compliance will enforce the Act, investigate alleged violations and may seek the imposition of civil fines and corrective orders, following a hearing, for any health care facility that violates the law. Fines will range from $100 to $1000 per incident.
Under the Act the following health care facilities are included: General or Specialty hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, hospice, ambulatory surgical facilitates, long-term nursing facilities, cancer treatment centers, inpatient drug and alcohol treatment facilities, any facility that provides clinically related health services operated by the Department of Corrections, Department of Health, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs or Department of Public Welfare. Private and Group health practitioners and facilities providing treatment solely on the basis of prayer or spiritual means are exempt.
Act 102 does allow for mandatory overtime for an unforeseeable emergency circumstance which include declared national, state, or municipal emergencies; a highly unusual or extraordinary event which is unpredictable or unavoidable and which substantially affects the provision of needed health care services or increases the need for health care services including acts of terrorism, natural disasters and/or widespread disease outbreak; and unexpected absences, discovered at or before the commencement of a regularly scheduled shift, which could not be planned for by the employer and which would impact patient safety.
If a violation occurs, Complaint forms and information for filing a complaint about Act 102 are available on the Labor and Industry Web site: www.dli.state.pa.us Information is also available at any of the Bureau’s regional offices.
