Section 167. Restrictions on consecutive hours of work for nurses

1. When
  used in this section:
    a. "Health care employer"  shall  mean  any  individual,  partnership,
  association,  corporation,  limited  liability  company or any person or
  group of persons acting directly or indirectly on behalf of  or  in  the
  interest  of  the employer, which provides health care services (i) in a
  facility licensed or operated pursuant to article  twenty-eight  of  the
  public  health  law,  including  any  facility  operated by the state, a
  political subdivision or a public  corporation  as  defined  by  section
  sixty-six  of  the  general  construction  law,  or  (ii)  in a facility
  operated by the state, a political subdivision or a  public  corporation
  as  defined  by  section  sixty-six  of  the  general  construction law,
  operated or licensed pursuant to the mental hygiene law,  the  education
  law or the correction law.
    b.  "Nurse"  shall  mean a registered professional nurse or a licensed
  practical nurse as defined by article one  hundred  thirty-nine  of  the
  education law who provides direct patient care.
    c.  "Regularly  scheduled work hours", including pre-scheduled on-call
  time and the time spent for the purpose of communicating  shift  reports
  regarding  patient status necessary to ensure patient safety, shall mean
  those hours a nurse has agreed to work and is normally scheduled to work
  pursuant to the budgeted hours allocated to the nurse's position by  the
  health  care  employer;  and  if  no such allocation system exists, some
  other measure generally used by the health care  employer  to  determine
  when  an  employee  is  minimally  supposed to work, consistent with the
  collective bargaining agreement, if any. Nothing in this  section  shall
  be  construed  to permit an employer to use on-call time as a substitute
  for mandatory overtime.
    2. a. Notwithstanding any  other  provision  of  law  no  health  care
  employer  shall require a nurse to work more than that nurse's regularly
  scheduled work hours, except  pursuant  to  subdivision  three  of  this
  section.
    b.  Nothing  in  this  section shall prohibit a nurse from voluntarily
  working overtime.
    3. The limitations provided for in this section shall not apply in the
  case of:
    a. a health care disaster, such as a natural or other type of disaster
  that  increases  the  need  for  health  care  personnel,   unexpectedly
  affecting  the  county in which the nurse is employed or in a contiguous
  county; or
    b. a federal, state or county declaration of emergency  in  effect  in
  the county in which the nurse is employed or in a contiguous county; or
    c.  where  a  health  care  employer determines there is an emergency,
  necessary to provide safe patient care, in which case  the  health  care
  provider  shall,  before requiring an on-duty employee to remain, make a
  good faith effort  to  have  overtime  covered  on  a  voluntary  basis,
  including,  but  not  limited  to,  calling  per  diems,  agency nurses,
  assigning floats, or requesting an additional day of work from  off-duty
  employees,  to  the extent such staffing options exist. For the purposes
  of this paragraph,  "emergency",  including  an  unanticipated  staffing
  emergency, is defined as an unforeseen event that could not be prudently
  planned for by an employer and does not regularly occur; or
    d.  an  ongoing  medical  or  surgical procedure in which the nurse is
  actively engaged and whose continued presence through the completion  of
  the procedure is needed to ensure the health and safety of the patient.
    4.  The  provisions of this section are intended as a remedial measure
  to protect the public health and the quality of patient care, and  shall

  not  be  construed to diminish or waive any rights of any nurse pursuant
  to any other law, regulation, or collective bargaining agreement.