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Tune in to the latest edition of California Employment News, where Meagan Bainbridge and Nikki Mahmoudi dive into LA County’s Fair Work Week Ordinance. Learn about key protections for retail workers, including scheduling rights, premium pay for schedule changes, and more.
Watch this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel.
Show Notes:
Meagan: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this installment of the California Employment News, an informative video and podcast resource offered by the Labor and Employment Group at Weintraub Tobin. My name is Meagan Bainbridge. I’m a shareholder in the Firm’s Labor and Employment Group, and today I’m joined by my associate, Nikki Mahmoudi.
Today, we’ll be talking about LA County’s Fair Work Week Ordinance, which is set to take place on July first, 2025. This legislation will provide covered employees with various protections related to their work schedules and working hours. Nikki, could you please provide us with some background information regarding the ordinance?
Nikki: Of course. So this ordinance will apply to retail businesses in the unincorporated areas of LA County that have at least 300 employees globally. When we’re talking about globally, this is going to include franchises and those employed through temporary staffing agencies. Covered employees will consist of employees as such businesses who, one, qualify for minimum wage, two, perform at least two hours of work in a work week in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County for a retail employer, and three, are assigned a primary work location and duties that support retail operations, including but not limited to a retail store or warehouse. Why protections for these specific employees? The LA County explained this ordinance is meant to meaningfully support its retail workers who often are paid low wages and work unpredictable schedules with little or no advanced notice. Meagan, could you tell us some of the protections under the Fair Work Week ordinance?
Meagan: Sure. Well, the first thing employers should familiarize themselves with is the Good Faith Estimate of Work Schedule Principle. Here, employers are required to provide workers with a written good faith estimate of their work schedule before hiring and within 10 days of a current employee’s request. This is defined as a reasonable fact-based prediction of an existing retail employee’s work schedule or a prospective retail employee’s prior hours worked by a similarly situated retail employee or other similar information. While a good faith estimate is not a binding contract, Correct. If an employee’s actual hours, days, location, or shifts work substantially deviate from that good faith estimate, the retail employer must have a documented, legitimate business reason, unknown at the time of providing the good faith estimate to substantially deviate from the plan. Further, while the ordinance provides that covered employees have the right to request a preference for certain hours, times, or locations of work, employers may accept or decline those requests, provided that the employer notifies the employee in writing of the reason for any denial. Finally, employers are required to provide employees with advanced notice of their work schedule at least 14 calendar days before the start of the work period.
Nikki: Employers can provide notice by posting the schedule in a conspicuous and accessible place in the workplace, by electronic means, or in person. It’s worth noting that any changes to the work schedules must be provided, and employees have the right to decline the hour, shifts, or work location changes not included in the original schedule. If the changes are agreed upon, the changes must be agreed to in writing and in advance of the change. Nikki, other protections are part of the fair work requirements?
Meagan: The one is going to be that before hiring a new retail employee or using the contractor, temporary service, or staffing agency to perform work, a covered employer must first offer the work to current retail employees. If one, one or more of the current retail employees is qualified to do the work as reasonably determined by the employer, and two, the additional work hours would not result in the payment of overtime. There’s a procedure to A covered employer must make the offer either in writing or by posting the offer in a conspicuous location where notices to covered employees are customarily posted. Notice must be at least 72 hours before hiring a new employee. And upon receipt of the offer, a retail employee must have 48 hours to accept the offer. Upon the expiration of the 48 hours period, the retail employer may hire new employees to work any additional hours not accepted by current employees. An employee who accepts these additional hours pursuant to this rule, they’re not entitled to premium pay for those additional hours. Another protection is that the the ordinance requires covered employers to issue premium pay whenever the employer changes an employee schedule.
When the schedule change results in no loss of time or additional work exceeding 15 minutes, the employer can owe the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee’s regular rate of pay. But changes that result in a loss of work time, as well as other scheduling changes, can require the employer to compensate the employee at one half of the employee’s regular rate of pay for the lost work time. For example, if an employee was scheduled to work six hours and the employer reduces this to three, the employee is going to be owed premium pay equal to one and a half hours of work. Now, premium pay will not be required if an employee initiates the request to schedule a change, an employee voluntarily accepts a schedule change initiated by employer due to another employee’s scheduled absence, an employee accepts additional hours that were offered by the employer pursuant to the access to hours provision of the ordinance that we talked about earlier. Employee’s hours are reduced to the employee’s violation of the employer’s policies. The employer’s operations are compromised pursuant to law or extra hours work to require the payment of overtime. Another protection involves coverage for missing work shifts.
Employers are prohibited from requiring an employee to find coverage for a shift if they cannot work due to protective reasons. Another protection that we’ll be covering today is the rest between shifts. Employers are required to give employees at least 10 hours of rest between shifts unless the employee gives written consent to be scheduled for a shift that begins less than 10 hours after the conclusion of the previous shift and pays the employee a premium time of an hour and a half for each hour of the second shift not separated by at least 10 hours. Megan, are there any other considerations to keep in mind?
Nikki: Just a couple of things. First, there are notice requirements. Every covered employer will be required to post in a conspicuous place at the workplace or job site where employees work, the notice of retail employees work week rights published each year by the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. Second, it’s unlawful for a covered employer to discriminate in any manner or take any adverse action against any person in retaliation for exercising their rights protected under this ordinance. Further, penalties and enforcement for violations could include payment of restitution and penalties, as well as employees have a private right of action to bring a civil complaint. As such, if you’re an employer who falls under this ordinance, it’s really important to understand the various requirements, train your managers and staff appropriately, and work with your legal counsel to ensure you’re engaging in compliant practices.
Thank you, Meagan. Well, that’s it for now. You can continue to find our video series and podcast through the lelawblog. Com or on the Weintraff Tobin YouTube channel. Thank you everyone for joining us, and we look forward to connecting with you on the next edition of California Employment News.
Meagan: Thanks, everyone.