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The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), requiring employers with 50-500 employees[1] to provide supplemental paid sick leave and paid family leave to their employees, and California’s statewide COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave requirement expired on December 31, 2020.  While employers may voluntarily continue to provide FFCRA and receive tax credits through March 31, 2021, the FFCRA mandates are now voluntary for employers to continue absent federal legislative action.  Despite this, numerous California counties and cities have extended their COVID-19 paid sick leave ordinances and imposed additional requirements for employers.  To date, these include: Los Angeles (City and County), City of Long Beach, Sacramento (City and County), San Francisco, City of Oakland, San Mateo County, Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, and San Jose.

City of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recently revised an order requiring an employer to provide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) if it has 500 or more employees in the city or 2,000 or more employees nationally. The February 10, 2021 revised order expanded coverage and provides SPSL benefits to employees employed with the same employer for 60 days, and expanded coverage to employees hired on or after March 5, 2020. Most importantly, the revised order mandates that employers calculate SPSL based on the employee’s respective two-week average pay over the last 60 days of employment. The order remains in effect until two calendar weeks after the expiration of the County of Los Angeles local emergency period.
Continue Reading Brief refresher for California employers: 2021 updates to local COVID-19 paid sick leave requirements

On March 19, 2020, governor of the state of California, Gavin Newsom, issued Executive Order N-33-20 (California Executive Order), effective immediately until further notice. This California Executive Order requires all individuals living in the state of California to stay home, except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors, as outlined at https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors. These sectors include: (1) chemical; (2) commercial facilities; (3) communications; (4) critical manufacturing; (5) dams; (6) defense industrial base; (7) emergency services; (8) energy; (9) financial services; (10) food and agriculture; (11) government facilities; (12) health care and public health; (13) information technology; (14) nuclear reactors, materials, and waste; (15) transportation systems; and (16) water and wastewater systems. Each of those sectors, as outlined in the federal guidelines outlined on that website, includes numerous types of businesses, and employers should consult the guidelines with legal counsel in assessing whether their operations fall within one of the exceptions. The supply chain will continue to allow access to such necessities as food, prescriptions, and health care. People may leave their homes to obtain or perform the functions above, or to facilitate authorized necessary activities.Continue Reading COVID-19: Practical implications of March 19, 2020, state of California and Los Angeles County emergency orders

Companies in the transportation industry with operations in California have some positive news to celebrate. On May 3, 2019, in Anthony Ayala v. U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc., et al., the Central District of California granted partial summary judgment and dismissed a truck driver’s meal and rest period claims, finding that they were preempted by the December 2018 ruling of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

In its December ruling, the FMCSA stated that California cannot enforce its meal and rest period laws with regard to interstate motor carriers because those laws do not provide any additional safety benefits above those already provided by the meal period rules contained in the federal hours of service rules. It also found that the California meal and rest period rules unduly burden interstate commerce.
Continue Reading Promising news for companies in the transportation industry

In a recent decision involving retail store employees, the Second Appellate District Court held that employees subject to on-call scheduling must be paid reporting time pay, even when the employee only has to make a short call to determine if they are needed, but does not physically report to work.

The case, Skylar Ward v. Tilly’s Inc., Case Number B280151, involved a putative class action complaint filed by Plaintiff Skylar Ward (Plaintiff), a former sales clerk in a Tilly’s store. In the complaint, Plaintiff alleged that Wage Order 7 mandated that nonexempt retail employees be paid “reporting time pay” if either “an employee is required to report for work and does report, but is not put to work or is furnished less than half said employee’s usual or scheduled day’s work” or “an employee is required to report to work a second time in any one workday and is furnished less than two (2) hours of work on the second reporting.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11070, subd. (5).) Specifically, Plaintiff contended that Tilly’s scheduling policy required employees to call in while on-call, disciplined employees for late or missed call-ins, and made call-in and reporting mandatory. Thus, Plaintiff alleged that when on-call employees contact Tilly’s two hours before on-call shifts they are reporting for work within the meaning of the wage order, and thus are owed reporting time pay.

The trial court sustained the demurrer by defendant Tilly’s on the grounds that Plaintiff is not entitled to reporting time pay under the Wage Order because: (1) the phrase “report to work” means that an employee physically appears at the workplace, and; (2) that merely calling in to learn whether an employee will work a call-in shift does not trigger reporting time pay under Wage Order 7. Continue Reading California on call shifts may qualify for paid reporting time pay