Bill Text: CA SB327 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Industrial Welfare Commission: wage orders: meal periods.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2015-10-05 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 506, Statutes of 2015. [SB327 Detail]
Download: California-2015-SB327-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 327 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 506
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 5, 2015
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 5, 2015
PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 9, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 22, 2015
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 6, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hernandez
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Low)
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
An act to amend Section 516 of the Labor Code, relating to private
employment, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 327, Hernandez. Industrial Welfare Commission: wage orders:
meal periods.
Existing law provides it is the continuing duty of the Industrial
Welfare Commission to ascertain the wages paid to all employees in
this state, to ascertain the hours and conditions of labor and
employment in the various occupations, trades, and industries in
which employees are employed in this state, and to investigate the
health, safety, and welfare of those employees. Existing law
establishes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in the
Department of Industrial Relations for the enforcement of labor laws,
including orders of the commission. Existing law, subject to certain
exceptions, prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work
more than 5 hours per day without providing a meal period and,
notwithstanding that provision, authorizes the commission to adopt a
working condition order permitting a meal period to commence after 6
hours of work if the order is consistent with the health and welfare
of affected employees. Existing law, except as provided in that
described meal period provision, authorizes the commission to adopt
or amend working condition orders with respect to break periods, meal
periods, and days of rest for any workers in California consistent
with the health and welfare of those workers. Existing law requires
the commission, by July 1, 2000, to adopt wage, hours, and working
condition orders necessary to ensure fairness in the establishment of
employee workweek schedules. Existing law further requires the
commission, by July 1, 2000, to conduct reviews of wages, hours, and
working conditions in specified industries and to adopt or modify
regulations necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of
workers in those industries. Existing wage orders of the commission
provide that employees in the health care industry who work shifts in
excess of 8 total hours in a workday may voluntarily waive their
right to 1 of their 2 meal periods in a prescribed manner. Existing
law prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to work during a
meal or rest or recovery period mandated by an applicable statute,
or applicable regulation, standard, or order of the commission, the
Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, or the Division of
Occupational Safety and Health, and establishes penalties for an
employer's failure to provide a mandated meal or rest or recovery
period.
This bill would provide that the health care employee meal period
waiver provisions in those existing wage orders were valid and
enforceable on and after October 1, 2000, and continue to be valid
and enforceable. The bill would state that the bill is declarative
of, and clarifies, existing law.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) From 1993 through 2000, Industrial Welfare Commission Wage
Orders 4 and 5 contained special meal period waiver rules for
employees in the health care industry. Employees were allowed to
waive voluntarily one of the two meal periods on shifts exceeding 12
hours. On June 30, 2000, the Industrial Welfare Commission adopted
regulations allowing those rules to continue in place. Since that
time, employees in the health care industry and their employers have
relied on those rules to allow employees to waive voluntarily one of
their two meal periods on shifts exceeding 12 hours.
(b) Given the uncertainty caused by a recent appellate court
decision, Gerard v. Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (2015) 234
Cal.App.4th 285, without immediate clarification, hospitals will
alter scheduling practices.
SEC. 2. Section 516 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
516. (a) Except as provided in Section 512, the Industrial
Welfare Commission may adopt or amend working condition orders with
respect to break periods, meal periods, and days of rest for any
workers in California consistent with the health and welfare of those
workers.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), or any other law, including
Section 512, the health care employee meal period waiver provisions
in Section 11(D) of Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders 4 and 5
were valid and enforceable on and after October 1, 2000, and
continue to be valid and enforceable. This subdivision is declarative
of, and clarifies, existing law.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to confirm and clarify the law applicable to meal period
waivers for employees in the health care industry throughout the
state, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.
