264 | 2023 Cal-Peculiarities ©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com will last less than two weeks, then the employer must give the employee at least 24 hours to accept the hours.556 The offer and the acceptance of hours must be communicated in writing, with records to be retained for at least three years.557 Employers must provide good-faith estimates of work schedules in writing before a new employee starts their employment.558 Employees can request changes to the schedule before commencing work.559 Employers must respond to employees’ requests in writing regarding schedule changes that are approved or rejected.560 New employees must be immediately given their first two weeks of scheduled work upon hire.561 The only exceptions to the Emeryville scheduling requirements are for circumstances when the employees or the place of business are threatened, when public utilities fail, or when there is an act of nature such as a natural disaster or civil unrest.562 Employee-toemployee changes are also exempt, but the employer cannot help to facilitate shift-swapping.563 Employees also have a right to decline work hours that occur within 11 hours of the end of the previous day’s shift or during the 11 hours following a shift that spanned two days. Employees who work these shifts must agree to do so in writing, and employers must pay them 1.5 times their regular rate for any hours worked with fewer than 11 hours of time off between shifts.564 Employers must post notice of employee’s rights under the ordinance.565 They must also provide notice to new employees upon hire.566 Employers must not retaliate against employees for exercising their rights under the ordinance.567 Penalties apply to employers that fail to notify employees of their rights, fail to provide a work schedule in a timely manner, fail to provide predictability pay for changes with less than 24 hours’ notice, fail to offer existing employees work before hiring, fail to maintain adequate payroll records for three years, and fail to give the City access to payroll records.568 Employees may also file their own lawsuits.569 Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council passed the Fair Work Week ordinance, which went into effect on April 1, 2023.570 However, it includes a 180-day grace period for penalties.571 The ordinance defines an employer as any retail business with over 300 employees globally.572 Notably, individuals employed through staffing agencies and employees of certain subsidiaries and franchises count toward the 300-person total.573 To be considered an employer under the ordinance, entities must also identify as a retail business in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) within retail trade categories and subcategories 44 through 45. (These categories include establishments primarily engaged in retailing merchandise and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise.)574 The ordinance defines an employee as anyone working in the City of Los Angeles two hours or more per week for an employer and who is entitled to be paid at least minimum wage under section 1197 of the California Labor Code and the California Industrial Welfare Commission’s published Wage Orders.575 Employers must provide a good faith scheduling estimate and a notice of rights.576 This good faith estimate must be provided within ten days of an employee’s request.577 If there is a substantial deviation from the estimate, the employer must have a documented business reason for the change.578 Employees also have the right to request a preference for certain hours, times, or locations.579 Employers may accept or deny requests, provided that they notify the employee in writing of the reason for any denial.580 Additionally, employers must provide work schedules to their employees at least 14 days in advance by either posting or transmitting them by electronic means (or another means reasonably calculated to provide notice).581 Employers must provide written notice of any employer-initiated changes that occur after the advance notice
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTkwMTQ4