©2024 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com 2024 Cal-Peculiarities | 237 7.12.2 Payment for uniforms California employers who require employees to wear uniforms must pay for the uniforms and their maintenance.349 A uniform is any distinctively designed or colored wearing apparel or accessory, although items of unspecified design that are usual and generally usable in the occupation (e.g., white shirts, dark pants, black shoes and belts) are not considered to be part of a uniform.350 In one case, a retailer settled a DLSE enforcement action in which the DLSE contended that a dress code requiring the wearing of a blue shirt and tan or khaki pants constituted a uniform requirement.351 Section 9(C) of most Wage Orders states that employer-provided uniforms must be returned by the employee upon completion of the job. The employer may require a reasonable deposit as security for the return, provided that the employer follows the specific requirements of Labor Code section 400, et seq. Pursuant to this process and with prior written authorization by the employee, the employer may deduct from the employee’s last check the cost of the uniforms, but must not deduct for normal wear and tear. 7.12.3 Payment for tools or equipment Section 9(B) of most Wage Orders provides that employers who require tools or equipment to perform a job must provide and maintain them, although employees who are paid at least twice the minimum wage may be required to provide and maintain hand tools and equipment customarily required in their trade or craft. Section 9(C) provides that with tools and equipment, as with uniforms, employers may require a reasonable deposit and may, with prior written authorization, make deductions for items not returned by employees. Employers must provide and maintain necessary tools and equipment even if such need was caused not by the employer itself, but by an uncontrollable act such as a government mandate. In 2023, the Court of Appeal held that Governor Newsom’s 2020 stay-at-home order issued at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic did not obviate an employer’s liability to reimburse employees—who were required to work from home due to such order—for business expenses that were incurred and necessary to perform their work.352 In that case, an employee who had begun working from home because of the Governor’s shut-down mandate sued for unreimbursed expenses, such as internet access, telephone headsets and service, and computers and computer accessories. The Court held that because the expenses were necessary for employees to perform their duties, and the company provided such services and equipment when employees were allowed to work from company offices, the fact of working from home did not change the company’s responsibility. In other words, employers may not avoid liability for providing tools and equipment (or reimbursing employees for those costs) even if the decision to work away from the office was at the direction of an outside entity, such as the government. (For a deeper discussion of employers’ requirement to indemnify employees for necessary business expenses, see § 7.13, infra.) 7.12.4 Cost of medical examinations California employers must not deduct from a paycheck the cost of a medical examination for the employee.353 7.12.5 Debt repayment (employee loans) Any payroll deduction used to satisfy a debt that the employee owes the employer is valid only if the deduction was approved in writing by the employee. Any deduction of a “balloon” payment from a final paycheck is unlawful.354 7.12.6 Barriers to employer recovery of wage overpayments The Court of Appeal has held that an employer must not make payroll deductions to recoup inadvertent overpayments of salary, because any such deduction would violate attachment and garnishment statutes.355 The DLSE has opined that an employer making regular, predictable, and expected overpayments (such as where the
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