As rolling blackouts threaten to become more common, many California employers face the thorny issue of how to handle employee pay when the heat or lights go out. Here’s an overview of what you can and can’t do:
- Send employees home. Michele Ballard Miller of the Miller Law Group in Larkspur points out that a little-noticed provision in the California Wage Orders makes it easier for you to send nonexempt employees home—without a penalty—during a power outage. Ordinarily, employees sent home before a shift’s end must be paid for at least half of their usual or scheduled day’s work. But this rule doesn’t apply if your public utility fails to supply electricity, water or gas. In those situations, you must only pay employees for the hours they worked before being dismissed for the day.
- Have employees stick it out. You can require employees to remain at work until power is restored. However, Miller says you must pay them for all the time they are required to remain at the workplace—even if no work is performed.
- Pay for callbacks. In a power outage, you can send employees home and then call them back to finish their shift without having to comply with the normal rule, which requires a minimum of two hours’ pay for the second reporting in a single day. Instead, you’ll have to pay your workers only for the hours they work. But be careful, because if an employee is not free to engage in personal pursuits between work periods, you might have to pay them for that time.
- Don’t dock exempt employees. Different rules apply to exempt employees. You must usually pay a full week’s salary when an exempt employee performs any work in a week—even someone who is sent home early because of a lack of work caused by a power outage or other reason.
The HR Management & Compliance Report: How To Comply with California Wage & Hour Law, explains everything you need to know to stay in compliance with the state’s complex and ever-changing rules, laws, and regulations in this area. Coverage on bonuses, meal and rest breaks, overtime, alternative workweeks, final paychecks, and more.