Cal-Peculiarities: How California Employment Law is Different 2022 Edition

©2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP  www.seyfarth.com 2022 Cal-Peculiarities | 255 Advance Notice Length of Shift Predictability Pay Owed < 7 days but 24 hours or more Any length 1 hour < 24 hours 4 hours or less 2 hours < 24 hours > 4 hours 4 hours Further, Formula Retail Employers must treat part-time employees the same as full-time employees with respect to (1) starting hourly wage, (2) access to employer-provided paid and unpaid time off (which is prorated for part- time workers), and (3) eligibility for promotions, subject to certain qualification s. 471 7.22.3 Warehouse quotas As of January 1, 2022, large employers that run California warehouse distribution centers are subject to peculiar new requirements. The Warehouse Quotas law, enacted in 2021, creates more than a dozen new sections of the Labor Cod e. 472 The law reacts to perceived threats to employee health and safety posed by any work quota, which the new law defines as a “work standard under which an employee is assigned or required to perform at a specified productivity speed, or perform a quantified number of tasks, or to handle or produce a quantified amount of material, within a defined time period and under which the employee may suffer an adverse employment action if they fail to complete the performance standard. ” 473 The law applies to any entity that employs, within California, 100 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution center or 1,000 or more employees at one or more warehouse distribution centers . 474 To counter the perceived threats, the Warehouse Quotas law creates these main provisions.  Employers must give each employee a written description of any applicable quota and the potential adverse employment actions that could result from failing to meet the quota . 475  Employers must not enforce quotas to the extent that enforcement would “prevent[] compliance with meal or rest periods, use of bathroom facilities, including reasonable travel time to and from bathroom facilities, or occupational health and safety laws. ” 476  Any employee actions to comply with occupational health and safety laws must be considered time on task and productive time for purposes of any quota or monitoring system . 477  Employees who believe a quota has violated their rights are entitled to request and receive a written description of each applicable quota and a copy of the most recent 90 days of the employee’s own personal work speed data . 478  Any adverse action against an employee taken within 90 days of that employee asserting quota-related rights creates a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation against the employee . 479  Violations of the law can be pursued by the DLSE and the employees themselves can sue for injuncitive relief and be awarded attorney fees if they prevai l. 480 7.23 Worker Retention and Staffing Requirements 7.23.1 Grocery worker retention Los Angeles and other California cities (such as Santa Monica, San Francisco, and Gardena) have “worker retention” ordinances that require purchasers of major supermarkets to retain certain members of the pre-existing workforce for at least 90 days, subject only to the employer’s right to fire a worker for cause. Other ordinances of