Nearly 1900 Nurses, Service, Professional and Technical workers at Empire Health Services are proud members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.
Layoff information for EHS staff: Know Your Rights| Staffing Situation | Can the hospital use the "reasonable efforts" exemption? |
| Unfilled positions resulting in holes in the schedule | NO |
| Anticipated staffing shortages due to prescheduled Leaves of absences, vacations or medical leave? | NO |
| Unanticipated increases in census that demands additional staff (i.e. natural disaster)? | YES |
Mandatory Overtime Ban:
Washington State law states that RNs and LPNs who work on an hourly
basis cannot be compelled to work overtime in excess of their regularly
scheduled shifts. The only exceptions are if there are unforeseeable
emergencies such as a natural disaster or other catastrophic event.
Management must document that other options for staffing have been
pursued, such as asking for volunteers, contacting supplemental staff
and calling for agency help.
Heather Harvego, RN
Valley ER
Our union worked hard to ensure legislation that protects nurses from mandatory overtime. Some of our units seem to be using mandatory overtime in order to make up for a chronic staffing shortage.
Our union, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW was instrumental in passing this important legislation that helps protect workers and patients. While this legislation covers RNs and LPNs, we strongly believe that no worker should be forced to work overtime at the convenience of management.
Warren Stowell
OR Tech, Deaconess
Mandatory low census is not an appropriate way for management to meet their budget. Our contract offers protections regarding the use of low census. Read your contact!
Low Census:
Has your department or unit experienced a sudden use of low census lately? Article 6 of our contracts provides protections against excessive use of low census by management and caps at 100 the number of mandatory low census hours each employee can be required to take each year. This article also lists the order in which employees may be low censused -- such as agency employees are the first, those on overtime are second, volunteers third, etc. If you have questions regarding the use of low census on your unit or department, please contact your delegate or organizer.