(a)  No health care facility as defined above shall require an employee to accept work in excess of an agreed to, predetermined scheduled work shift of eight (8), ten (10), or twelve (12) hours.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-17.20-3

  • Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. Source:
  • Employee: means a nurse licensed pursuant to chapter 5-34, and a certified nurse assistant registered pursuant to chapter 23-17. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17.20-2
  • Employer: means a person, partnership, association, corporation or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of a health care facility;

    (3)  "Health care facility" means any private, public or state hospital;

    (4)  "On-call time" means time spent by an employee who is not working on the premises of the place of employment but who is compensated for availability or who, as a condition of employment, has agreed to be available to return to the premises of the place of employment on short notice if the need arises;

    (5)  "Reasonable efforts" means that the employer shall:

    (i)  Seek persons who volunteer to work extra time from all available qualified staff who are working at the time of the unforeseeable emergent circumstance;

    (ii)  Contact all qualified employees who have made themselves available to work extra time; and

    (iii)  Seek the use of per diem staff;

    (6)  "Regular hourly wage" means the amount that an employee is regularly paid for each hour of work as determined by dividing the total hours of work during the week into the employee's total earnings for the week, exclusive of pay for overtime work;

    (7)  "Unforeseeable emergent circumstance" means an unpredictable occurrence relating to health care delivery that requires immediate action, and which shall include a major power outage, a public health emergency, an irregular increase in patient census, or an irregular increase in the number of employees not reporting for predetermined scheduled work shifts. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-17.20-2

(b)  No health care facility shall require an employee to work overtime in excess of an agreed to, predetermined scheduled work shift of eight (8), ten (10), or twelve (12) hours, except in an unforeseeable emergent circumstance. In no case shall a health care facility require an employee to work in excess of twelve (12) consecutive hours. The refusal of any employee to accept such overtime work shall not be grounds for discrimination, dismissal, discharge, or any other penalty or employment decision adverse to the employee.

(c)  Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to limit voluntary overtime in excess of an agreed to, predetermined scheduled work shift of eight (8), ten (10), or twelve (12) hours.

(d)  The provisions of this section shall not apply in the case of an unforeseeable emergent circumstance when: (1) the overtime is required only as a last resort and is not used to fill vacancies resulting from chronic short staffing; and (2) the employer has exhausted reasonable efforts to obtain staffing.

(e)  The requirement that the employer shall exhaust reasonable efforts to obtain staffing shall not apply in the event of any declared national, state or municipal emergency or a disaster or other catastrophic event which substantially affects or increases the need for health care services.

History of Section.
P.L. 2007, ch. 496, § 1; P.L. 2007, ch. 515, § 1.