Two bills proposed by
Republican legislators that are under consideration in the state Capitol would
provide some welcome flexibility for employers and individual employees when it
comes to work scheduling.
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Under existing state wage
and hour law, employees who work more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a
week are entitled to overtime pay for any additional hours worked, with some
exceptions. However, the law also authorizes “alternative workweek schedules,” which
permit employees to work, for instance, four 10-hour days without overtime. But
strict rules govern alternative workweeks. For example, they must be proposed
by the employer and approved in a secret-ballot election by at least two-thirds
of the affected employees in a work unit.
A.B. 2217 would permit
individual nonexempt employees to work up to 10 hours a day within a 40-hour
workweek, without a fixed workweek and with no overtime compensation—and
without having to follow the rigid alternative workweek rules.
The individual would only
have to submit a written request for this schedule, subject to the employer’s approval.
The employer couldn’t encourage or otherwise solicit an employee to submit a
request for such an alternative schedule. Note that this schedule option
doesn’t apply to workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
A similar measure, S.B. 1254,
would also permit individual workers (who aren’t covered by a collective bargaining
agreement) to request, in writing and subject to the employer’s approval, a
work schedule of four 10-hour days; overtime pay would be earned only after
working 10 hours in a day. But there’s a big catch: the employee would collect
double-time for any work performed on the fifth, sixth, and seventh days of a
workweek—the usual rule only requires doubletime pay after 12 hours in a
workday or after 8 hours on the seventh day in a workweek.
Employers could inform
workers that they may request an individual flexible schedule, but employers would
be barred from inducing requests by promising employment benefits or
threatening an employment detriment.
We’ll keep you posted on
the status of this and other wage and hour legislation.