Bill Text: CA AB2448 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Employment: flexible work schedules.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-05-21 - From committee without further action pursuant to Joint Rule 62(a). [AB2448 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB2448-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2448 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 20, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Jones
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
An act to amend Section 142 of 510 of, and
to add Section 511.5 to, the Labor Code, relating to
employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2448, as amended, Jones. Division of Occupational
Safety and Health: enforcement. Employment: flexible
work schedules.
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 the obligation to pay
overtime compensation for those additional hours in a workday, except
as specified. The bill would require the Division of Labor Standards
Enforcement in the Department of Industrial Relations to enforce
this provision and adopt regulations.
Existing law provides that the Division of Occupational Safety and
Health, within the Department of Industrial Relations, shall enforce
all occupational health and safety standards, as specified.
This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to these
provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
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 2014.
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(a) Small businesses and their workers suffer from outdated and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, and would 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 2014 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 adopted 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 510 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 adopted, the
employer shall pay overtime at one and one-half times 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 employee requests 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 an 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.
SECTION 1. Section 142 of the Labor Code is
amended to read:
142. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health shall enforce
all occupational safety and health standards adopted pursuant to
this chapter, and those previously adopted by the Industrial Accident
Commission or the Industrial Safety Board. General safety orders
heretofore adopted by the Industrial Accident Commission or the
Industrial Safety Board shall continue to remain in effect, but they
may be amended or repealed pursuant to this chapter.
