Bill Text: CA AB141 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Employment: working hours.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-02 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB141 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB141-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 141 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Tran
JANUARY 22, 2009
An act to amend Section 510 of, and to add Section 511.5 to, the
Labor Code, relating to employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 141, as introduced, Tran. Employment: working hours.
Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a
day's work and a 40-hour workweek, and requires payment of prescribed
overtime compensation for additional hours worked. Existing law
authorizes the adoption by 2/3 of employees in a work unit of
alternative workweek schedules providing for workdays no longer than
10 hours within a 40-hour workweek.
This bill would permit an individual nonexempt employee to request
an employee-selected flexible work schedule providing for workdays
up to 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek, and would allow an
employer to implement this schedule without any obligation to pay
overtime compensation. The bill would require the Division of Labor
Standards Enforcement of the Department of Industrial Relations to
enforce this provision and adopt regulations.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
Workplace Flexibility Act of 2009.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Small businesses and their workers suffer from outdated and
inefficient workplace and overtime rules that do not allow for
sufficient flexibility for employers and workers to schedule their
hours of work for mutual benefit.
(b) California overtime laws, which are unique in the country,
make it difficult for most employers to reach an agreement with an
individual worker that would allow a flexible work schedule.
(c) Existing law does not permit an employer to allow an
individual worker to choose a flexible work schedule of four 10-hour
days per week without overtime being paid.
(d) As a consequence, millions of California workers do not have
the opportunity to take advantage of a flexible work schedule that
would benefit the workers and their families.
(e) Permitting workers to elect to work four 10-hour days per week
without the payment of overtime would allow them to spend
much-needed time with their families, lessen traffic congestion on
our crowded roads and highways, allow workers to spend one day a week
on personal matters, such as volunteering at a child's school,
scheduling medical appointments, and attending to other important
family matters that often are difficult to schedule with a
five-day-per-week, eight-hour-per-day schedule.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting the Workplace
Flexibility Act of 2009 to protect workers as follows:
(1) A worker may not be forced to work more than eight hours in a
day without receiving overtime, but, instead, he or she may request a
flexible work schedule of up to four 10-hour days per week and an
employer may agree to this schedule without having to pay overtime
for the ninth and tenth hours worked per day in that schedule.
(2) An employer will be required to pay overtime rates after 10
work hours in a day for workers who have chosen a flexible schedule
pursuant to this act.
(3) An employer will be required to pay double normal pay after 12
work hours in a day for a worker who has chosen a flexible schedule
under this act.
(4) Any worker, including one who chooses a flexible schedule
under this act, will receive overtime for any hours worked over 40
hours in a single week.
(g) Workplaces that are unionized already allow workers to choose
to work four 10-hour days; however, it is virtually impossible for
workers of nonunionized workplaces to enjoy this benefit.
(h) No compelling public policy reason exists for this discrepancy
in the flexibility of work schedules between unionized and
nonunionized workers.
SEC. 3. Section 510 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
510. (a) Eight hours of labor constitutes a day's work. Any work
in excess of eight hours in one workday and any work in excess of 40
hours in any one workweek and the first eight hours worked on the
seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be compensated at the
rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay
for an employee. Any work in excess of 12 hours in one day shall be
compensated at the rate of no less than twice the regular rate of pay
for an employee. In addition, any work in excess of eight hours on
any seventh day of a workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no
less than twice the regular rate of pay of an employee. Nothing in
this section requires an employer to combine more than one rate of
overtime compensation in order to calculate the amount to be paid to
an employee for any hour of overtime work. The requirements of this
section do not apply to the payment of overtime compensation to an
employee working pursuant to any of the following:
(1) An alternative workweek schedule adopted pursuant to Section
511.
(2) An employee-selected flexible work schedule implemented
pursuant to Section 511.5.
(2)
(3) An alternative workweek schedule adopted pursuant
to a collective bargaining agreement pursuant to Section 514.
(3)
(4) An alternative workweek schedule to which this
chapter is inapplicable pursuant to Section 554.
(b) Time spent commuting to and from the first place at which an
employee's presence is required by the employer shall not be
considered to be a part of a day's work, when the employee commutes
in a vehicle that is owned, leased, or subsidized by the employer and
is used for the purpose of ridesharing, as defined in Section 522 of
the Vehicle Code.
(c) This section does not affect, change, or limit an employer's
liability under the workers' compensation law.
SEC. 4. Section 511.5 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
511.5. (a) Notwithstanding Section 511 or any other law or order
of the Industrial Welfare Commission, an individual nonexempt
employee may work up to 10 hours per workday without any obligation
on the part of the employer to pay an overtime rate of compensation,
except as provided in subdivision (b), if the employee requests this
schedule in writing and the employer approves the request. This shall
be referred to as an overtime exemption for an employee-selected
flexible work schedule.
(b) If an employee-selected flexible work schedule is implemented,
the employer shall pay overtime at one and one-half the employee's
regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek
or over 10 hours in a workday, whichever is the greater number of
hours. All work performed in excess of 12 hours per workday and in
excess of eight hours on a fifth, sixth, or seventh day in the
workweek shall be paid at double the employee's regular rate of pay.
(c) An employer may inform its employees that it is willing to
consider an employee request to work an employee-selected flexible
work schedule, but shall not induce a request by promising an
employment benefit or threatening an employment detriment.
(d) An employee or employer may discontinue the employee-selected
flexible work schedule at any time by giving written notice to the
other party. The request will be effective the first day of the next
pay period or the fifth day after notice is given if there are fewer
than five days before the start of the next pay period, unless
otherwise agreed to by the employer and the employee.
(e) This section does not apply to any employee covered by a valid
collective bargaining agreement or employed by the state, a city,
county, city and county, district, municipality, or other public,
quasi-public, or municipal corporation, or any political subdivision
of this state.
(f) This section shall be liberally construed to accomplish its
purposes.
(g) (1) The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement shall enforce
this section and shall adopt or revise regulations in a manner
necessary to conform and implement this section.
(2) This section shall prevail over any inconsistent provisions in
any wage order of the Industrial Welfare Commission.
SEC. 5. The provisions of this act are severable. If any provision
of this act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity
shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given
effect without the invalid provision or application.
