How Do California Nurse Labor Laws Protect Nurses?

California nurse labor laws are unique and provide nurses in the state additional protections. In addition, the state can slap employers who violate these laws with steep fines. Read on to learn more about these laws and how they might protect nurses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

California Nurse Labor Laws

Nurses are afforded additional rights and protections under California labor law, including overtime and mandatory breaks, along with mandated staffing ratios in certain settings. However, California nurses have raised alarms over potential labor law violations, reportedly holding rallies and strikes over short-staffing forcing them to work through meal and rest breaks as demand surges during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Each nurse is entitled to three paid 15-minute breaks and a half an hour off the clock every day,” a registered nurse and union representative told MedPage Today. “If I could find a single member who got all those breaks every day, I would keel over from shock because it doesn’t happen. And now it’s expected and accepted; we’re just taking it…when it doesn’t need to be this way.”

Nurses and Overtime

Indeed, under California laws, nurses are entitled to more overtime pay than under federal law, according to Swipe Clock. This amounts to time-and-a-half pay for nurses who work over 8 hours in a 24-hour period. In addition, double pay is due to nurses who works over 12 hours in a day.

Other California Labor Laws Affecting Nurses

In addition to overtime pay, nurses are also afforded meal and rest breaks under California labor laws. Under California wage and hour law, every employee is due a 30-minute meal break after five hours of work. While other professionals are exempted from these requirements, nurses are not.

California nurses and other employees are also entitled to a 10-minute rest break for every four hours they work. In addition, employees who work two hours or more are entitled to a break as well.

A day of rest must also be given to nurses and other California workers, according to Swipe Clock. Specifically, state law requires employees be given one day off each week if they work over 30 hours a week and more than 6 hours a day.

Additionally, nurse-to-patient ratios are mandated under California law in acute care hospitals and violations can bring fines from $15,000 to $30,000.

Can Nurse Labor Laws Protect Workers During the Pandemic?

Nurses and healthcare workers are on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic. Nurses’ unions in California, as well as nationally, are pushing employers to provide more protection and simple information to workers about COVID-19 outbreaks.

According to In These Times, no one knows exactly how many nurses have died of COVID-19 after being exposed at work, but workers are concerned. Reportedly, nurses and other healthcare workers are concerned about contracting COVID-19 at work. A lack of personal protective equipment is an often-cited concern.

Nurses are also reportedly concerned about staffing shortages affecting the care they can provide to patients. Travel nurses are in high demand.

“We routinely are short if not one, two, then three nurses a shift … and the hospital really isn’t doing a whole heck of a lot to change that,” an anonymous nurse told In These Times. ​ “I think people are realizing that things aren’t going to change. And that maybe we need to amp it up.”

California nurses and other healthcare workers are reportedly starting to organize to help protect themselves. Reportedly, UCLA nurses rallied in November to protest the lack of COVID-19 testing at the facility. Protesters reportedly pointed out that they lack the testing provided to UCLA athletes.

According to local news source, Spectrum News 1, the protest by 4,000 UCLA nurses took place “to demand that hospital administration notify frontline workers when they have been exposed to COVID-19 and to guarantee timely access to COVID testing for all nurses and health care professionals.”

Additionally, Spectrum reported that nurses in Orange county rallied to raise awareness of staffing levels they consider too low, as well as lack of PPE and crowding in the emergency room.

In These Times reports that for the first time in many, there was an increase in healthcare workers voting to unionize. In addition, nurses and other healthcare workers have demonstrated over lack of protective gear and the failure of California medical facilities to inform them about coronavirus outbreaks in their workplaces.

California nurses are turning to labor practice complaints to hold their employers accountable. In These Times reports that healthcare workers have filed over 200 complaints alleging violations of the National Labor Relations Act.