Psychiatric technicians and psychiatric technician assistants: overtime.

The State Civil Service Act generally requires the workweek of state employees to be 40 hours, and the workday of state employees to be 8 hours. Under the act, it is the policy of the state to avoid the necessity for overtime work whenever possible. The Psychiatric Technicians Law provides for the licensure and regulation of psychiatric technicians (PTs) by the Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians of the State of California. This bill would prohibit a PT or psychiatric technician assistant (PTA) employed by the State of California in a specified type of facility from being compelled to work in excess of the regularly scheduled workweek or work shift, except under certain circumstances. The bill would authorize a PT or PTA to volunteer or agree to work hours in addition to his or her regularly scheduled workweek or work shift, but the refusal to accept those additional hours would not constitute patient abandonment or neglect or be grounds for discrimination, dismissal, discharge, or any other penalty or employment decision adverse to the PT or PTA. The bill would require management and supervisors to consider employees in a specified order of priority in order to fulfill the additional staffing needs of a facility.