National Nurses United

J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 9 CALIFORNIA I n a big win for the more than 100,000 registered nurses of the California Nurses Association, Gov. Gavin New- som signed three CNA-sponsored bills in September: AB 2537, which requires hospital employers to stock suffi- cient inventories of personal protective equipment to protect their employees; AB 2037, which increases public noticing requirements of hospital and service clo- sures; and AB 2588, which stops employers from mandating that RN job applicants pay for required educational programs or training. The PPE legislation, AB 2537, authored by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez, applies to all hospital workers and requires employers to provide and ensure that employees use PPE to protect themselves. The PPE must be new and not expired. The law also mandates these employers to maintain a stockpile of unexpired per- sonal protective equipment in the amount equal to three months of normal consump- tion. Decontaminated PPE cannot be part of their stockpile. Additionally, employers are required to provide an inventory of their stockpiles to Cal/OSHA upon request. AB 2537 ensures that an employer who violates this require- ment shall be assessed a civil penalty of up to $25,000 for each such violation pursuant to Cal/OSHA. Hospital closures or cuts to services have a devastating impact on local communities. AB 2037 helps ensure that people can con- tinue to access desperately needed medical care by expanding noticing requirements when hospitals plan to close or eliminate existing services. Under the new law, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, noticing requirements come Jan. 1, 2021 will be 180 days for closing hospitals with emergency departments and 120 days for hospitals without, and 90 days for the elimination of an existing service. Previously, the noticing requirement for closure was 90 days for hos- pitals with ERs and 30 days without. The legislation also expands public notice to include the local city council, a posting on the hospital website, a posting in the county's community clinics, and post- ings in the local newspaper and on the local newspaper's website. "We've seen units and whole hospitals close down just because their profit margins were not large enough," said CNA President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN. "The earlier a community knows, the more they can do and the more options they have to prevent these devastating cuts and closures." CNA nurses, working in coalition with health care activists and community mem- bers, have done just this multiple times over the past decades, as hospital systems have consolidated and whittled away at the num- ber of hospitals in the state and services offered—even as the state's population has grown. Through public campaigns, nurses have saved what was formerly St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco and San Leandro Hospital in San Leandro from closure. In 2018, CNA nurses in Long Beach fought fiercely, working with local elected officials, to help transfer Community Hospital Long Beach to a new operator to avoid complete closure; the hospital is expected to reopen some time this year. Despite these victories, hospitals such as St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, and the entire labor and delivery department at San Jose Regional Medical Center have been shuttered in recent years. This new law will help buy communities and elected officials more time to propose alternative plans. Ongoing education and training is an essential part of being a registered nurse providing direct care. AB 2588, authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, closes loopholes in existing law pertaining to on- the-job training requirements and ensures nurse job applicants are protected in the same way the law protects nurses who are employees. Specifically, this law will stop employers from mandating that applicants for employment incur the cost for required educational programs or training. AB 2588 also creates retaliation protection for any job applicant who refuses to enter into a contract or agreement that binds them to paying for an employer required educa- tional programs or training. —Chuleenan Svetvilas Three CNA-sponsored bills signed into law Nurses win PPE stockpile and training, hospital closure notification

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