PTO Year. The PTO year shall be based upon an employee’s anniversary date as a regular employee. Subject to the scheduling requirements of each department, employees may take PTO in increments of not less than fifteen (15) minutes at a time.
PTO Year a. The “PTO Year” shall be from January 1 through December 31 annually.
b. The parties acknowledge that the responsibility for utilizing PTO is shared by the Manager and the Nurse.
c. Scheduled PTO requests for the following calendar year shall be made no earlier than May 1 of each year and shall be considered on a unit by unit basis as determined by the unit based self-scheduling committee. Reasonable efforts will be made by the Hospital to accommodate the Registered Nurse’s preference for time off Scheduled PTO, but the final decision shall rest with Hospital based on patient care needs. In the event that a conflict of requested time exists and the scheduled PTO is requested between May 1 and May 31 inclusive, preference will be given to the Registered Nurse on a patient care unit basis by seniority (as defined in Article XVII, Section 1.). Such request shall be granted or denied by June 14, after which requests will be handled on a first-come first-serve basis and answers will be given by the Nurse Manager within two weeks of the request. Such requests will normally be granted where staffing permits in accordance with Article VI, but shall not be unreasonably denied.
d. Reasonable effort shall be made not to schedule Registered Nurses to work on the weekends immediately preceding or following their scheduled week(s) of PTO. No Registered Nurse will be required to work weekends falling during his/her scheduled week(s) of PTO.
e. The Hospital will make reasonable efforts to accommodate the preference of the Registered Nurse insofar as the choice of scheduled PTO dates is concerned. It is recognized, however, that granting time off for scheduled PTO shall be subject to staffing requirements and patient care needs. The number of Registered Nurses that may take time off for scheduled PTO at the same time shall be determined by the Hospital. When a conflict arises as to choice of scheduled PTO dates at the time of approval, the Registered Nurse with the greater seniority shall be given preference, but not for more than two (2) weeks at a time.
f. If a death occurs during a scheduled PTO period, the paid days pursuant to Article XIV, Section 1.
a. Death in the Family, will be considered bereavement days and PTO will be returned to the bank for future approval and scheduling.
g. Registered Nurses hired prior to 5/1/05 and who have completed the years of service shown below will receive a vacation and longevity bonus in the following amounts, which will be provi...
