As the California
Legislature heads into the final months of its current session, there’s a host
of wage and hour bills still under consideration. We’ve compiled an overview of
the pending measures that may be coming to your workplace. Note that the last day
for bills to be passed is August 31, and the governor has until September 30 to
sign or veto them. In upcoming issues of CWHA, we’ll keep you informed about the bills that are signed into
law.
Meal Periods
A.B. 1711 would provide that the first meal period must be
completed before the end of the sixth hour of work and would adjust the rules
for on-duty meal period agreements. The bill would also require employers to
pay employees an additional hour of compensation for each split-shift day
worked.
A.B. 2530 would clarify that meal period requirements do not apply
to transportation employees who are eligible for the motor carrier overtime
exemption.
A.B. 2719 would exempt employees performing surveillance
operations as part of a workersʼ compensation fraud investigation from meal
period requirements.
S.B. 529 would exempt from Labor Code meal period requirements
employees of an electrical corporation, a gas corporation, or a local publicly
owned electric utility who are covered by a valid collective bargaining
agreement that provides for 1) meal periods for employees, 2) final and binding
arbitration of disputes concerning application of its meal period provisions,
3) premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and 4) a regular hourly
rate of pay not less than 30 percent more than the California minimum wage.
S.B. 1192 would clarify
that an employer complies with the existing requirement to “provide” a meal or
rest period simply by making one available to the employee without interfering
with its use. The bill also would specify that the first meal period must begin
at any time before the start of the sixth hour of work. And it would spell out
that the additional hour of compensation an employer must pay for missed meal
and rest periods is a penalty and not a wage, an advantageous provision for
employers.
Final Paychecks
A.B. 1902 and S.B. 940 would require that employees of temporary
services employers be paid weekly, or daily if an employee is assigned to a
client on a day-to-day basis or to a client involved in a labor dispute. S.B.
940 would not apply if an employee of a temporary services employer is assigned
to work for a client for over 90 consecutive calendar days, unless the employee
is paid weekly in compliance with the bill. For purposes of compliance with
termination pay rules, the measures provide that a temporary services employer
will have paid wages in a timely way when an assignment is completed if wages
are paid according to the weekly/daily timeline above. (See more on this topic
on page 5.)
Alternative Workweeks
A.B. 2127 would grant relief to employers with 25 or fewer
employees from existing and complicated alternative workweek rules. On an
individual employeeʼs written request, these employers could authorize a work
schedule for that person of up to 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek,
without paying daily overtime. The employer and the employee would have to sign
a written agreement detailing the arrangement. The employee or employer could terminate
the agreement with written notice at least seven days in advance of the desired
termination date.
Exempt Employees
A.B. 2672 would add a new Labor Code section defining who is an
exempt “outside salesperson” for purposes of Wage Order 11 (Broadcasting
Industry). Under this measure, an exempt outside salesperson would include: a
person age 18 or older who customarily and regularly works more than half of
his or her working time away from the employer‘s place of business selling a
tangible or intangible item or obtaining an order or contract for a product, a
service, or the use of a facility; or a salesperson age 18 or older whose
earnings exceed 11/2 times the state minimum wage and whose commission earnings
represent more than half of his or her compensation.
Expense Reimbursement
A.B. 3061 would clarify that, for purposes of the existing
requirement that employers must indemnify employees for necessary expenditures
and losses incurred in the course of employment, “indemnify” means reimburse.
This bill would also establish the federal IRS standard mileage rate as a
reasonable per mile reimbursement rate for the use of a personal vehicle for
work purposes.