Emergency medical services workers: rights and working conditions.

Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, governs local emergency medical service systems and plans and establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority, which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all state activities concerning emergency medical services. Existing law provides that emergency medical personnel have specified due process rights when they are subject to suspension or termination for disciplinary cause or reason, as defined. Existing law prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work during a meal or rest or recovery period mandated by an applicable statute, or an applicable regulation, standard, or order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, or the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Existing orders of the commission applicable to ambulance drivers and attendants and to medical technicians require that unless the employee is relieved of all duty during a 30 -minute meal period, the meal period shall be considered an on-duty meal period and counted as time worked. Those orders authorize an on-duty meal period only when the nature of the work prevents an employee from being relieved of all duty and when the parties, by written agreement, agree to an on-the-job paid meal period. This bill would require an employer that provides emergency medical services as part of an emergency medical services system or plan to authorize and permit its employees engaged in prehospital emergency services to take prescribed rest periods, including specifying grounds for interruption of a rest period and compensation for an interrupted rest period. The bill also would require the employer to provide these employees with prescribed meal periods, including specifying grounds for interruption of a meal period and compensation for an interrupted meal period. The bill would authorize an employer to require during rest and meal periods that employees monitor pagers, radios, station alert boxes, intercoms, cellular telephones, or other communication methods to provide for the public health and welfare. Existing federal law, the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, preempts a state from enacting or enforcing any law, regulation, or other provision that relates to an air carrier's price, route, or service. The bill would specify that an employer who is an air carrier under federal law and who conducts business as an air ambulance service, without penalty, may avoid disruption of services by requiring an employee to remain on call during meal and rest periods, or as otherwise dictated by federal law. The bill would require such an employer to provide another meal period or authorize and permit another rest period, or both a meal and rest period, as applicable, when an employee is affirmatively required to interrupt his or her meal or rest period to respond to the needs of patients. The bill would also specify that such an employer may avoid disruption of services by requiring an employee to continue to provide emergency care during a patient transport during meal and rest periods, or as otherwise dictated by federal law. The bill would require such an employer, if it cannot provide a meal or rest period to an employee with direct responsibility for emergency air ambulance services within the timeframes established under applicable law, due to patient needs or the necessity to provide service, to provide a meal or rest period as soon as reasonably possible. Existing law establishes the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board within the Department of Industrial Relations, and authorizes the board to adopt, amend, or repeal occupational safety and health standards and orders. Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973, requires the standards board to adopt standards developed by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health that require specified licensed hospitals to adopt a workplace violence prevention plan to protect health care workers and other facility personnel from aggressive and violent behavior, but prohibits this provision from being interpreted to preclude the standards board from adopting standards that require other employers to adopt plans to protect employees from workplace violence, including workplace violence prevention plans that include elements or requirements additional to, or broader in scope than, those described in the provision. This bill would require an EMS provider, as defined, to send the information contained in the violent incident log it is required to maintain under a specified regulation to the Emergency Medical Services Authority. The bill would require the authority, on or before January 1, 2019, and annually thereafter, to post a report on its Internet Web site containing this information. The bill would prohibit these provisions from altering or amending the existing reporting and recordkeeping requirements of EMS providers imposed by the specified regulation. The bill would exempt certain public employers from these provisions.