SEIU Local 1199WI

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End Mandatory Overtime for Health Care Professionals!

SEIU Healthcare District 1199Wisconsin is fighting to stop the health care industry's ever expanding use of mandatory overtime. Click on the links below to find out more about the growing abuse of forced overtime in health care facilities and what you can do about it.

State Senate and Assembly Bills on Mandatory Overtime

Bills before the state legislature forbid employers from forcing direct caregivers like nurses to work shifts of overtime except in cases of emergency. Similar legislation has been enacted in 10 states. In 2002 these bills were approved by the State Senate and the Assembly Health Committee before being bottled up by the Assembly leadership.

In 2008, we've launched a new effort to ban mandatory overtime in Wisconsin health care facilities. Take Action to Pass SB 512, sponsored by State Senator Judy Robson (D-Beloit) and Reprsentative Charles Benedict (D-Beloit), and about the effort to ban Mandatory Overtime in Wisconsin Healthcare Facilities.

Member Testimony at Mandatory Overtime Hearing

Members turned out in large numbers for hearings before the Assembly Labor Committee on bills curtailing mandatory overtime for direct caregivers. Read the testimony of SEIU Healthcare District 1199 Wisconsin President Dian Palmer and other members on why ending mandatory overtime will improve staffing and help address the nurse shortage.

Read SEIU Healthcare member testimony:

President Dian Palmer, RN	Heidi Gammon, RN	Dee Ives, RN
	Marcia Rayho, RN	Ann Louis Tetreault, RN

SEIU Fact Sheet on Mandatory Overtime

According to a national survey by SEIU, nurse's now work an average 8.5 weeks of overtime a year. Now, record numbers of nurses are leaving the health care field. Read a fact sheet on Mandatory Overtime for detailed information on this growing crisis.

Answers to Management's Arguments

The hospital industry is resisting limits on the use and abuse of mandatory overtime for caregivers. Read the 2001 SEIU response to the hospital industry's disingenuous arguments against proposed mandatory overtime legislation before the Wisconsin State Legislature. In 2008 opponents to banning mandatory overtime are still making the same mistaken arguments against a ban.

Research: Nurse Shortage Related to Working Conditions like Mandatory Overtime

Substantial government research on America's nursing workforce points to an alarming crisis in the availability of nurses to provide patient care. The research pinpoints mandatory overtime as a major reason nurses are leaving their profession. Read testimony summarizing the 2001 GAO Report on the coming nurse shortage.