Healthcare Workers Stepping Up to Staff Up - Enforceable Hospital Staffing Plans Now in Effect!

In 2021, CWA helped pass a groundbreaking new law that requires every hospital in New York State to create Staffing Committees to address the severe understaffing issues in many facilities. These committees, made up of at least half frontline workers, worked over the past year to create Staffing Plans for direct care titles on each patient care unit in the hospital - and will continue to do so each year, with new plans established each July 1st. On January 1st, those plans took effect and must be followed by the hospital - no exceptions.

This new law is a huge step in our fight for safe staffing, but we know that it’s only as strong as we make it. CWA healthcare leaders have been holding trainings up and down the state to train members as Staffing Captains, who will help workers understand the new law and how to report violations - and ensure that violations of the staffing plans are addressed. Reporting violations is a vital part of the union’s work on staffing so that we can hold hospitals accountable to the staffing plans.

CWA healthcare workers can use the CWA Staffing Form to file a complaint if the staffing on their unit meets any of the following:

• Violates hospital's staffing plans
• Is inadequate for safe patient care
• Results in poor, unfair, or unsafe working conditions

​Healthcare workers - visit CWASafeStaffing.org to learn more and to file a complaint!