My employees normally work Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day, and all are paid hourly for their work. There have been some issues among the employees, and I want to bring them all in for a 1-hour meeting on Saturday morning to discuss the issues. I’ve given everyone two weeks’ notice of the meeting. I’m hearing that some of the employees are expecting to get paid for 4 hours even though they’re only going to be at work for 1 hour. How much do I have to pay my employees for attending this meeting?
It sounds like your employees are discussing a concept called “reporting time pay.”
Reporting Time Pay
Under the California Wage Orders, an employee is entitled to receive half of his scheduled day’s pay if he is sent home before completing half of the scheduled shift. Moreover, under the Wage Orders, an employee is entitled to at least 2 hours of pay if he is required to report to work on an unscheduled day, or is called back to work a second time on a scheduled day of work.
In this particular circumstance, your employees will not be entitled to “reporting time pay” because you have scheduled this 1-hour “shift” on Saturday morning in advance. As a result, the employees are neither being sent home early, nor are they being asked to report on an unscheduled day, because in fact, you scheduled the meeting 2 weeks in advance. This particular issue was discussed in the fairly recent case of Aleman v. AirTouch Cellular, 209 Cal App 4th 556 (2012). In that case, the court ruled that Saturday and/or Sunday morning meetings that were scheduled 4 days in advance met the definition of a “scheduled shift,” and therefore no reporting time pay was required.
Overtime Pay
You should, however, be cognizant that if you are having your employees come in to work on the weekend after having already worked 40 hours during the workweek, that 1 hour of meeting time would be considered “overtime” and would have to be paid at the premium rate of 1.5 times the employees’ regular rate of pay.
The Labor Law Helpline is a service to California Chamber of Commerce preferred and executive members. For expert explanations of labor laws and Cal/OSHA regulations, not legal counsel for specific situations, call (800) 348-2262 or submit your question at www.hrcalifornia.com.
