Rikers Nurses Rally Against Forced Overtime

"Free the nurses," shouted a group of 35 protesting nurses outside Rikers Island correctional facility. "Stop forced overtime!" On a boom box, Aretha Franklin belted out R-E-S-P-E-C-T and some facility vans honked their support as they drove past.
The nurses say that they are sick of being forced to work overtime, when Prison Health Services (PHS)the private company that contracts with the City to oversees health services on Rikerscould hire temporary workers instead. Or even hire more full-time nurses.
"You dont have a choice," said Lucie Thomas, who has worked as an nurse at Rikers for 11 years. "You could get fired if you refuse to stay." Thomas said that almost every day, someone was asked to stay to cover an extra 7-1/2-hour shift, often with only two to three hours notice.
"When youre short staffed, you work overtime and then youre left with a margin of error," said Georgia Young, who has worked at Rikers for 15 years.
"Even if you make a complaint they might not listen to you," said Vioneta Santa Cruz, a single grandmother helping to raise her three grandchildren while her daughter studies to become a doctor. "They say they have no one else and you are stuck." Santa Cruz said that her daughter had to miss class to stay with the children whenever she had to work overtime. "She cant afford a baby sitter, it will affect her school."
The Rikers management first asks for volunteers for extra shifts, but if no one steps forward, they force someone to stay, according to Brian McNally, the labor representative for the New York State Nurses Association.
The nurses have been without a contract since the beginning of the year. They are demanding that the new document forbid forced overtime except in extenuating circumstances.
The old contract also lacked a retirement health plan, they complained. "All nurses should be covered for health benefits," said McNally. "Nurses in the City hospitals have that. All [the Rikers nurses] are asking is a stipend that would tide them through till their Medicare kicked in."
The PHS contract to provide Rikers health services began Jan. 1, 2001 and will end on Dec. 31, 2003. PHS would like the RNs new contract to last only two years, until the end of its own tenure. The RNs insist that they should be awarded a three-year contract, so that if PHS does not continue to operate at Rikers, their rights will be protected for a year under the next provider.
Neither PHS nor Rikers could be reached for comment.