California law requires employers to guarantee a day of rest for each workweek for its employees. Specifically, the California Labor Code prohibits an employer for “causing” its employees to work “more than six days in seven,” but this rule does not apply “when the total hours of employment do not exceed 30 hours in any week or six hours in any one day thereof.”
Seems clear enough, but some ambiguities crop up when these rules are put into practice. For instance, does the day of rest apply to a workweek, or does it apply on a rolling basis to any seven day period? Also, does the exemption apply so long as an employee works six hours or less on at least one day of the week, or does it only apply when the employee works no more than six hours on each and every day of that week? Finally, what does it mean for an employer to “cause” an employee to work?
These were the questions posed to the California Supreme Court in the recent case of Mendoza v. Nordstrom, Inc.
The court answered the questions as follows:
- The day of rest guarantee applies to workweeks, and not to any consecutive seven-day period of work.
- The exemption for employees working shifts of six hours applies only to those employees who never exceed six hours of work on any day of the workweek. Therefore, if on any one day an employee works more than six hours, a day of rest must be provided during that workweek.
- To “cause” an employee to go without a day of rest means that the employer induces the employee for forgo rest to which that employee is entitled. Based on that definition, an employer is not forbidden from permitting or allowing an employee to independent choose not to take a day of rest, provided that the employee has been fully apprised of his or her entitlement to rest.
Employers should review their policies and processes to ensure that employee schedules are implemented in accordance with these rules.
EDGAR LEGAL GROUP 