Single-Serving Alternative Workweeks?

California law authorizes “alternative workweeks,” which permit employers to sidestep overtime requirements when adopting flexible schedules. But what if you have just a single employee who wants to adopt this modified schedule?

For starters, it’s important to note that the alternative workweek rules apply to all California employers, regardless of the size, although there are variations depending on the applicable Wage Order (which we’ll cover tomorrow).

Learn how to audit your overtime classifications and avoid some of the costliest mistakes that have tripped up other employers—coming up this Thursday! Can’t make it on Thursday? Order the CD and learn at your leisure.

Under California law, a single employee can elect an alternative work schedule if the employee is his or her own “identifiable work unit.”

An “identifiable work unit” is a division, department, job classification, shift, separate physical location, or a recognized subdivision of any of these categories. So, if the lone employee is, for example, the only employee in a particular job classification, then the employee alone can elect an alternative schedule.

If, on the other hand, the employee is one of, for example, several counselors employed by the company, then all of the counselors would have to elect the same alternative schedule.

Keep in mind that simply changing one employee’s job title would not be sufficient to identify the employee as a separate work unit, if the work the employee performs is the same as the work other employees perform—unless the employee works at a different location or on a different shift (e.g., day shift versus night shift), or is in a separate and independently recognizable division of the company.

Outside of the healthcare industry, an employee on an alternative workweek schedule cannot work a regular schedule of more than 10 hours in a day, and overtime is still due if the employee works more than 10 hours a day or 40 hours in a week.

Join us on Thursday for an in-depth “virtual boot camp” all about mastering the overtime rules in California. Learn more here.

But there’s no reason that the hours per week can’t be divided up in smaller increments over more days, so long as it is the employee’s regular schedule and the employee is a regular, full-time employee (as opposed to a temp or a part-time employee—in which case, the employee would have to be paid overtime after 8 hours in a day).

In addition, except in the construction industry, an employee on an alternative workweek schedule must be scheduled to work at least 4 hours per work day.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how the California Wage Orders come into play with alternative workweeks. We’ll also extend an invitation to an in-depth “virtual boot camp” that will get you up to speed on all facets of California overtime law.