Needlestick safety bills

Legislation to protect health care workers from needlestick injuries is being considered in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, with the FNHP urging its passage.

The House and Senate bills, both known as "The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act," require employers to identify, evaluate and make use of safer medical devices. The legislation emphasizes training, education and the participation of those workers exposed to sharps injuries in the evaluation and selection of safer devices. The bill also creates new record-keeping requirements to aid employers in identifying and eliminating high-risk situations.

H.R. 5178, sponsored by Reps. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) and Major Owens (D-N.Y.), and the Senate bill, S.3607, sponsored by Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), were both introduced on Sept. 19.

The legislation amends the bloodborne pathogens standard developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to require the use of safe needles and other devices.

Visit the legislative action center at the "Contact Congress" section of AFT Online where you can send a letter to your senators and representatives urging them to work for enactment of this legislation.

Governor vetoes overtime bill

Despite overwhelming support in the State Legislature and by patient, community and union groups, New Jersey governor Christine Whitman vetoed legislation that would have banned mandatory overtime for hospital workers in the state.

The governor's veto was "conditional," calling for the state Department of Health and Department of Labor to issue regulations "setting a reasonable restriction to overtime (whether voluntary or mandatory), which could be worked by certain health care employees who receive an hourly wage."

Voluntary overtime is something that can be planned, say nurses who rallied in Trenton during the governor's veto on Sept. 21. Being forced to stay after your regular shift is a different matter.

The original bill, passed overwhelmingly by the N.J. Legislature this spring, would have been a supplement to the New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law and made it a violation of the law to require hourly wage workers to work in excess of eight hours per day or in excess of 40 hours per week, except only as a last resort. The bill also specified that acceptance of such overtime would be "strictly voluntary" and the refusal of such work would not expose workers "to employment decisions adverse to the employee."

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