Bill Prohibiting Mandatory Overtime for Hourly Wage Health Care Professionals Signed into Law

On January 2, 2002, Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco signed into law legislation amending New Jersey’s Wage and Hour Laws that will have a significant impact on employers in the health care industry in New Jersey. The legislation, entitled “An Act concerning work hours for certain health care facility employees,” directly affects the ability of employers to meet staffing needs in an industry already suffering from drastic employee shortages. This unprecedented legislation prohibits health care facilities from requiring employees to work overtime, except in very narrow circumstances.

The practical effect of the law is that it requires health care employers to rethink the way in which they staff certain positions and departments in their organizations, as well as to implement various levels of contingency plans for dealing with staff shortages. Moreover, the Act imposes additional recordkeeping requirements for affected employees, and requires employers to convey or make available this data to various governmental agencies.

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