Court Denies Bid to Restore Overtime Pay

A labor union effort to restore mandatory overtime in California for nonunion members working more than eight hours a day was rejected Wednesday by the state Supreme Court.

Only Justice Stanley Mosk voted to grant a hearing on an appeal by the California Labor Federation, the statewide AFL-CIO organization, of a lower-court ruling upholding a repeal of daily overtime.

The repeal took effect Jan. 1 for 8 million workers. It was ordered by the state Industrial Welfare Commission, whose members were appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Previously, California workers were guaranteed time-and-a-half pay for all hours worked above eight in a day. That requirement had been in effect for women and children since 1918, and for men since 1980.

The new rules require the extra pay only after 40 hours in a week. Similar rules are in effect in 46 other states and in federal law.

The rules do not apply to unionized workers, about 10% of the work force, whose overtime arrangements are negotiated in their labor contracts.

The Industrial Welfare Commission voted for the change in new regulations last year after Wilson’s request for a state law repealing mandatory daily overtime was rejected by the Legislature. The governor has since vetoed a bill that would have overturned the commission’s action.

Labor Federation spokeswoman Judith Barish said the court’s action was disappointing.

“California workers received a pay cut of $1 billion a year from the end of daily overtime,” she said. “This step was taken in flagrant violation of democratic constitutional procedures.”

The $1-billion figure was disputed by the Department of Industrial Relations. It said 80,000 Californians were collecting $266 million a year in overtime for working extra hours in a day before the rules were changed. The department also predicted that the loss would be offset by an increase in individual working hours.

The lawsuit argued that the Legislature had adopted the Industrial Welfare Commission’s 1980 time-and-a-half pay rules into state law, thus eliminating the commission’s authority to repeal them.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge William Cahill disagreed and was upheld in May by the 1st District Court of Appeal in a 3-0 ruling.

Legislators passed a nonbinding resolution opposing the commission’s action, denied confirmation to some commission appointees for their votes, tried to block the commission from spending money on the rules, and passed the bill that Wilson vetoed--but never passed a law requiring daily overtime, the appeals court said.