Section 1: The standard work week for regular full-time nursing employees of Mercer Home Health Care will be 40 hours/ week, exclusive of meal periods. This may be (5) days, (8) eight hours per day exclusive of meal periods or, at management's discretion, if management and employee agree to a mutually acceptable alternate work schedules provided they meet the required hours to meet the regular full-time or regular part-time definitions.
Section 2: Available work schedules shall be posted for regular full-time and regular part-time visiting nurses selected by employees and awarded on the basis of seniority.
Work times and schedules are based on the agreement at the time of hire between regular full-time and regular part-time visiting nurse and MHHC and will not be changed arbitrarily or capriciously. These schedules may be posted when openings arise. The current visiting nurse staff may request to be considered for an open work schedule within (14) fourteen days of
a. A staff member resignation or
b. Initiation of Employer advertising for additional staff
Requests will be awarded on the basis of seniority of those expressing written interest and initiated as expeditiously as possible; however, in no event shall it exceed ninety (90) days of approval. After (14) fourteen days, applicants will be offered the open schedule, and no current staff will be eligible to request it.
Section 3: The standard work day shall fall between the hours of 7am and 8pm.
Section 4: Scheduling of patient visits that require any full-time or regular part-time visiting nurse to regularly work hours other than their standard daily hours will be avoided. In the instance where a visit is necessary outside of the hours of work of the current visiting staff, the following procedure will apply.
a. Cell phone on-call
i) A nurse will be on call via cell phone each day starting Monday at 4:30 pm and ending at 8 am the following Monday. The nurse will be responsible for receiving calls from the answering service, telephone triage for patients, and for making visits if needed.
ii) Regular full-time, regular part-time, and per diem visiting nurses will be permitted to sign up for weekly cell phone on-call up to four (4) months in advance. If there are insufficient volunteers for this position, weekly assignments for this position will be rotated among all regular full-time, regular part-time visiting nurses by seniority for sign up. Those failing to sign up will be assigned open slots by the Employer. A regular part-time visiting nurse shall, in instances of insufficient volunteers, be subject to assignment every other time such nurse’s name is reached on the seniority list.
iii) If coverage cannot be obtained with the first and second steps above, or even if obtained there is additional work which cannot be reasonably accomplished, regular full-time, part-time will be assigned the visit(s) or the telephone triage in reverse order of seniority. The nurse(s) will then rotate to the bottom of the seniority list.
b. Weekend on-call:
i) Regular full-time and regular part-time visiting nurses, excluding those whose regular work schedules include Saturday and/or Sunday, will sign up for weekend on-call based on seniority. If a nurse is scheduled to be on vacation for a full week, such nurse shall not be considered available to work on the weekends connected to the vacation, which may affect the order of preference of the other nurses.
ii) The weekend on-call nurse will be available from 8 am to 4:30 PM Saturday and Sunday to receive patient assignments. The weekend on-call nurse will be compensated for actual time worked. The nurse may be required to take off an amount of time equal to the actual time worked respectively. The nurse may choose either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in that pay week to have off. The nurse, with the agreement of management, may choose to work her/his regular schedule in addition to working the weekend day(s), thus potentially putting her/him into voluntary overtime.
iii) If no patients have been assigned to the weekend on-call nurse by 4:30, the weekend on-call nurse is then released from duty for the day.
iv) If coverage cannot be obtained with the step above, or even if obtained, there is additional work which cannot be reasonably accomplished, a regular full-time and/or part-time nurse will be assigned the visits first by volunteer and if there are not sufficient volunteers, then in reverse order of seniority. The nurse(s) will then rotate to the bottom of the seniority list.
c. Holiday on-call:
The Office is closed on the day following the major holidays:
• New Year’s Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day
i) Regular full-time, regular part-time visiting nurses will sign up for each holiday on-call to be available by phone for assignments. Assignments for this position will be rotated among all regular full-time and regular part-time visiting nurses by seniority-based sign-up on an annual basis. If there are more visiting nurse staff members than recognized holidays per year, the sign-up will continue into the next year's holidays for as many slots as there are nurses participating in the sign-up process. If at any time, a slot becomes unfilled, then the process as outlined in section iv) below will be utilized to provide coverage.
ii) Per Diem staff is to sign up to be available to work one winter and one summer holiday per year. This sign-up will not supersede the sign-up that occurs for full-time and part-time visiting nurses, and if not needed, the per diem will be canceled first.
iii) If coverage cannot be obtained with the step above, or even if obtained there is additional work which cannot be reasonably accomplished, regular full-time, part-time, or per diem nurses will be assigned the visit in reverse order of seniority. The nurse(s) will then rotate to the bottom of the seniority list.
iv) The holiday on-call nurse(s) will be available by cell phone to the nursing supervisor from 8 am to 4:30 pm and to the Answering Service from 4:30 pm to 8:00 am the next morning (24 hours). The holiday on-call nurse will be compensated for actual time worked. If a holiday falls on the employee’s regularly scheduled day off, the nurse may be required to take off an amount of time equal to the actual time worked. This nurse may choose an alternate day after the holiday in that same pay week to have off. This day off must be approved by management, and an alternate day may be assigned based on agency need. As an exception to this, with the agreement of management, the nurse may choose to work her/his regular schedule in addition to working the holiday, thus potentially putting her/him into voluntary overtime.
