Ten years after it was first enacted, and as part of the resolution of California's budget crisis, California Labor Code section 511 authorizing the use of an alternative workweek was amended for the first time (AB X2 5) last week.

The bill itself was a model of expedited lawmaking - its creation, passage, and signing took less than ten days. AB X2 5 was introduced in the Assembly as a budget trailer bill on February 11, modified to its final form on February 14, and passed finally by the Senate on February 19, with the Governor signing it the next day. The bill was never reviewed by any budget or legislative policy committee.

The amendments to Section 511:

1. Codify the language in certain existing IWC Wage Orders that allow an employer to offer employees a menu of work schedule options when proposing an alternative workweek election.

2. Specify that the proposed alternative workweek menu of work schedule options may include a regular schedule of eight-hour days. This provision nullifies advice appearing to the contrary in the January 2007 version of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement's Enforcement Policies and Interpretation Manual at section 56.7.2.2. The amended law also specifies that employees who adopt a menu of alternative workweek schedules may, with employer consent, move from one schedule option to another on a weekly basis.

3. Codify the definition in certain existing IWC Wage Orders of a readily identifiable "work unit" to include, for the purposes of an alternative workweek election, a division, department, job classification, shift, separate physical location, a recognized subdivision, or an individual, if the individual meets the criteria for an identifiable work unit.

The amendments to the statute take effect on May 21, 2009.

This blog entry was authored by Christopher E. Cobey.