Bill Text: CA SB368 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Employment: work hours.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 62(a). [SB368 Detail]
Download: California-2015-SB368-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 368 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 4, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 16, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Senator Berryhill
FEBRUARY 24, 2015
An act to amend Section 510 of, and to add Section 511.5 to, the
Labor Code, relating to employment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 368, as amended, Berryhill. Employment: work hours.
Existing law, with certain exceptions, establishes 8 hours as a
day's work and a 40-hour workweek, 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 enact the California Workplace Flexibility Act of
2015. 2016. The 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, workweek and
would allow the employer to implement this schedule without the
obligation to pay overtime compensation for those additional hours in
a workday. The bill would prescribe a method for calculating the
payment of overtime for hours worked in excess of the permitted
amounts and would establish requirements for termination of these
agreements. The bill would except from its provisions employees
covered by collective bargaining and public employees, 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.
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
California Workplace Flexibility Act of 2015.
2016.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California businesses and their workers suffer from outdated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 a California 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, large, small, and micro-employers do not
have the flexibility to offer their employees the opportunity to take
advantage of a flexible work schedule that would benefit the workers
and their families.
(e) Permitting employees to elect to work four 10-hour days per
week without the payment of overtime would allow those employees 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-days-per-week, eight-hours-per-day schedule.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting the California
Workplace Flexibility Act of 2015 2016
to protect workers as follows:
(1) An employee 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 the employer may agree to this schedule without having to pay
overtime for the 9th and 10th hours worked per day in that schedule.
(2) The 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) The 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) The 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.
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.
(3) An alternative workweek schedule adopted pursuant to a
collective bargaining agreement pursuant to Section 514.
(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 adopted
pursuant to subdivision (a), 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) The 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) The 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.
