Employers Aren’t Required to Provide Paid Sick Leave
Q. My husband works for a large national corporation. Recently, the local managers announced that all sick leave was suspended. When my husband became very ill one day, he was told to stay at work or take unpaid leave or vacation time. He worked for a few more hours, then finally left, using vacation time.
Is this policy legal? The company claims that sick leave is granted at the manager’s discretion and can be suspended at any time.
--L.D., Costa Mesa
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A Although paid sick leave is commonplace, an employer is not required to provide paid sick leave for its employees. The only required paid leave is workers’ compensation leave, which is paid by insurance.
A nonexempt employee who works for an employer that does not provide paid sick leave ordinarily is not paid for time missed because of illness unless he or she is permitted to use some other form of paid leave (such as personal time off or vacation time) for the period of the absence.
Your husband should ask if there is an employee handbook and, if so, should get a copy to see what it says about sick leave.
It is unusual for a large national corporation to give its local managers the discretion to grant or deny sick leave. However, such a policy or practice is lawful so long as the local managers do not grant or deny sick leave based on sex, race, age (40 or older) or some other unlawful reason.
--Deborah C. Saxe
Management attorney
Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe
How to Compensate for Travel Time
Q. I own a small consulting business and am trying to put together a policy on compensating employees for travel time.
Several employees are hourly nonexempt workers. They occasionally are required to travel up to two hours to client locations.
If an hourly worker goes into overtime while traveling, is it legal to have a policy stating that we will pay them straight time for the extra hours rather than time and a half? I have not been able to find a state labor law that clarifies this.
--M.R., Santa Barbara
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A. If you require employees to check in at your office before traveling to the client’s location, you must pay them for their travel time even if it amounts to overtime. Moreover, you must pay all overtime at time and a half, regardless of whether the time is spent working or traveling.
A better approach is to direct employees to show up at the client’s location to begin their workday. Have them clock in when they start working and clock out when they finish working. Their travel to and from home is then on their own time and need not be compensated.
--James J. McDonald Jr.
Attorney, Fisher & Phillips
Labor law instructor, UC Irvine
Rest, Lunch Breaks Are Required
Q. Due to a recent severe shortage of help, I worked 25 hours straight. When I talked to the controller about getting paid, he said anything over 40 hours in the week would be overtime. I reminded him that I had already logged 40 hours that particular week.
Is there any law limiting the number of consecutive hours an employee can work? I also had no breaks. I figure they owe me some sort of double time or even triple time.
--J.S., Van Nuys
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A. Unfortunately, you are not legally entitled to double or triple time for working 25 hours straight.
Since January 1998, when most daily overtime rules were discontinued, most hourly employees outside the motion picture and broadcast industries receive overtime pay only when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek, and then only at 1 1/2 times their regular pay rate.
A bill pending in the state Legislature would restore daily overtime of time and a half after eight hours and double time after 12 hours.
But your employer has violated the law by failing to give you rest breaks and meal periods. Under California law, nonexempt employees in the private sector are entitled to a 30-minute unpaid meal period whenever they work five or more hours (except when their workday is only six hours and both the employer and employee consent).
In limited circumstances, meal periods can be waived in advance in an agreement signed by the employer and employee. Hourly employees must also receive at least one 10-minute paid rest break during every four hours worked.
You can file a complaint about your employer’s denial of meal periods and rest breaks with the California Labor Commissioner, which has an office in Van Nuys.
If the office decides to issue a complaint, the commissioner will schedule a hearing and seek an order requiring your employer to provide regular rest breaks and lunch periods in the future.
--Joseph L. Paller Jr.
Union, employee attorney
Gilbert & Sackman
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If you have a question about an on-the-job situation, please mail it to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; dictate it to (714) 966-7873, or e-mail it to shoptalk@latimes.com. Include your initials and hometown. The Shop Talk column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.
