Can unions get California to retire mandatory overtime for state nurses?
The labor contract that covers nurses working in state prisons and hospitals contains a frank admission about one of the staffing models that California relies on to run 24-hour facilities: “The Union and the State agree that mandatory overtime is not an effective staffing tool.”
It goes on to note, however, that “the two parties disagree on how California should minimize the practice of requiring nurses to fill-in for shifts when administrators can’t find someone to work.”
SEIU Local 1000, the union that represents some of the state workers required to work overtime, has tried to eliminate the practice for decades. (Twenty years ago Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have eliminated mandatory overtime.) In recent months, SEIU Local 1000 has called the California Department of Human Resources back to the bargaining table in an attempt to reduce how frequently its members are called in at the last minute to work shifts that they didn’t plan to.
“We’re trying to work with them to make it more flexible so people can have work-life balance, and that’s what the state doesn’t understand.” said Vanessa Seastrong, the chair of bargaining unit 17, which represents over 5,000 civil-service nurses.
One way some nurses have achieved that balance, and reduced the use of mandatory overtime, is by instituting 12-hour shifts at Patton State Hospital, Seastrong said, where she also works as a nurse. But the state has not taken up the union’s suggestion to adopt similar alternative work schedules at other facilities, she said.
“The State and SEIU Local 1000 continue working in good faith, and CalHR does not comment on negotiations in progress,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.
A recent state audit found that several state correctional and medical facilities in California have failed to meet required staffing levels and have turned to hiring contracted workers, instead of state employees, to fill those vacancies. Unfilled nursing positions accounted for 65% of all the vacancies at the three facilities the California State Auditor reviewed in fiscal year 2023-24.
Those vacancies require administrators to use mandatory overtime more, Seastrong said, because nurses are required to fill in for shifts at facilities that operate 24-hours a day.
Mandatory overtime isn’t effective because it lowers staff morale, contributes to poor health outcomes for workers and is associated with higher error rates in hospitals, according to a 2016 report on mandatory overtime by the independent agency Little Hoover Commission. Additionally, overtime is expensive because nurses are paid 50% more for those extra hours of work. California spent $179 million on overtime for nursing staff in fiscal year 2014-2015, the commission reported.
Knowing that mandatory overtime is an issue for this classification, three departments that rely on the staffing model — the Department of State Hospitals; the California Department of Veterans Affairs; and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — formed task forces with SEIU Local 1000 to explore ways to reduce mandatory overtime for several nursing classifications.
The union-department task forces wrote reports earlier this year that outlined the issues contributing to mandatory overtime and recommendations for how to address those issues.
In the report drafted by the union and the California Correctional Health Care Services, which provides healthcare inside CDCR facilities, SEIU Local 1000 suggested the best way to encourage staff to volunteer for unfilled shifts was to offer differential pay on the weekends, when demand for overtime is greatest, and to increase nurses’ salaries to retain and recruit more employees. The union suggested that employees who volunteer for overtime twice in a week are exempt from working extra the following week.
Alternatively, the California Correctional Health Care Services recommended offering priority parking spots for the employee of the month.
The reports highlighted that salaries for nurses working for the state were lower than those of private hospitals and other public health care providers. Seastrong said those discrepancies were contributing to the high vacancy rates at state facilities.
The use of mandatory overtime has varied over the years and the departments have taken steps to address the issue in different ways, primarily through reducing vacancies and using contracted nurses to fill staffing gaps.
Kate Hoit, a spokesperson for CalVet, said in a statement that the department is “committed to supporting a safe, stable work environment for our nursing staff and ensuring high-quality care for the veterans we serve,” but declined to provide additional comment.
The union’s current contract included a provision that allowed SEIU Local 1000 to reopen their contract with the state after the reports were shared with department heads and CalHR. When the union and CalHR met in October to discuss solutions to the ineffective staffing practice, CalHR rejected their proposal at first and then said they needed more time to consider the proposal, Seastrong said.
Seastrong declined to share the proposal that was presented to CalHR, but she said that the goal was to reduce the use of mandatory overtime.
If Seastrong’s bargaining unit and CalHR can’t agree on something soon, the union chair said they will have to fold the issue into next year’s collective bargaining process when SEIU Local 1000 plans to negotiate out a new contract.
