©2024 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com 2024 Cal-Peculiarities | 265 However, predictability pay is not required for the following: employee-requested schedule changes; employees voluntarily accepting schedule changes due to another employee’s absence; hours changed as a result of the employee’s violation of law or the employer’s policies; the employer’s operations are compromised due to force majeure; or where extra hours would result in overtime payments.617 Employees are required to give employers written notice of any alleged violations and an opportunity to cure before filing a claim with the City.618 Employers have 15 days to cure alleged violations.619 The City can recover up to $500 per violation per each employee.620 Both employees and the City will also be entitled to administrative penalties that accrue on a daily basis.621 Employees will be able to enforce the ordinance through a private right of action and attorney fees will be awarded to prevailing plaintiffs.622 (However, an entity enforcing the ordinance on behalf of the public shall only be entitled to equitable, injunctive, and/or restitutionary relief, and reasonable attorney fees.623) Los Angeles County. In the spring of 2024, Los Angeles County passed a Fair Work Week Ordinance,624 which is set to go into effect in July 2025 for retail employers located in the unincorporated areas of the County. It closely tracks the city of Los Angeles’s Fair Work Week Ordinance. The Ordinance will apply to Retail Employers that employ at least 300 employees worldwide, including individuals employed by staffing agencies and certain subsidiaries and franchises.625 Under the Ordinance, “Retail Employees” include individuals who perform at least two hours of work within the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, qualify for minimum wage under California law, and are assigned a primary work location and duties that support retail operations (like retail stores or warehouses).626 Covered employees must receive their work schedule 14 calendar days in advance of the work period, and have a right to decline any hours not included in such work schedule.627 If an employer changes the work schedule after the 14-day period, it must have documented consent from impacted employees.628 Employers must also provide a good faith estimate of their work schedule to a prospective employee before hire, and to a current employee within 10 calendar days of a request.629 Employees will be entitled to predictability pay for changes made to their work schedule within the notice period under certain circumstances.630 Employers will owe one hour at the regular rate of pay for any change to a scheduled date, time, or location that results in no loss of hours or results in adding more than 15 minutes of work.631 Employers will also owe half of the employee’s regular rate of pay when (1) time is subtracted from a shift before or after the employee reports to work; (2) changes to the start or end time of a shift results in a loss of more than 15 minutes; (3) the date of a shift changes; (4) a shift is cancelled; and (5) the employer schedules the employee for an on-call shift if the employee is not called in.632 However, predictability pay is not required for employee-initiated schedule changes, scheduled changes resulting from another employee’s absence that an employee accepts, or changes made due to a violation of law or policy.633 Predictability pay also is not owed when work operations are compromised (e.g., a natural disaster), or if the schedule change adds hours that will require payment of overtime.634 Additionally, employers must offer additional hours to current qualified employees at least 72 hours before hiring a new employee, contractor, or temporary hire.635 The Ordinance also prevents employers from scheduling employees to work a shift that starts less than 10 hours from the employee’s last shift without written consent and payment of time and a half for each hour of the subsequent shift.636
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