Certain California Wage Orders authorize alternative workweeks of workdays exceeding eight hours without overtime pay, if specified criteria are met. Such flexible scheduling requires full disclosure to affected employees and the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the employees in the affected work unit voting in a secret ballot election before performance of the work. See Lab. Code sec. 511.
An employer proposing the alternative workweek schedule must make a written disclosure to the affected employees before the secret ballot vote, including disclosure of the effects of the proposed arrangement on the employee's wages, hours, and benefits.
Under a duly adopted alternative workweek schedule, the employer must pay overtime at one-and-a-half times the regular rate after 10 hours of work per day in a 40-hour workweek, and at double the regular rate after 12 hours per day. If the alternative workweek schedule is adopted, as noted above, it may require employees to work more than 10 hours per day and more than 40 hours per week (provided overtime is paid for each hour after the tenth hour). The purpose of Lab. Code sec. 511 is not to limit the overall number of hours in an alternative workweek shift, but rather limit the alternative schedules to not more than 10 hours per day without triggering daily overtime. Mitchell v Yoplait (2004).
Both the employer and an employee may benefit from the alternative workweek arrangement, especially in the most common alternative workweek arrangement, where an employee works 3 days per week for 10 or more hours a day. In this situation, the employee obviously benefits from having extra two days off per week. In exchange, the employer is partially relieved from paying over time (for the 9th and 10th hour on any given workday) that the employer would otherwise have to compensate at 1.5 the regular rate.
An employer proposing the alternative workweek schedule must make a written disclosure to the affected employees before the secret ballot vote, including disclosure of the effects of the proposed arrangement on the employee's wages, hours, and benefits.
Under a duly adopted alternative workweek schedule, the employer must pay overtime at one-and-a-half times the regular rate after 10 hours of work per day in a 40-hour workweek, and at double the regular rate after 12 hours per day. If the alternative workweek schedule is adopted, as noted above, it may require employees to work more than 10 hours per day and more than 40 hours per week (provided overtime is paid for each hour after the tenth hour). The purpose of Lab. Code sec. 511 is not to limit the overall number of hours in an alternative workweek shift, but rather limit the alternative schedules to not more than 10 hours per day without triggering daily overtime. Mitchell v Yoplait (2004).
Both the employer and an employee may benefit from the alternative workweek arrangement, especially in the most common alternative workweek arrangement, where an employee works 3 days per week for 10 or more hours a day. In this situation, the employee obviously benefits from having extra two days off per week. In exchange, the employer is partially relieved from paying over time (for the 9th and 10th hour on any given workday) that the employer would otherwise have to compensate at 1.5 the regular rate.
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