We want to change our non-exempt employee’s schedule for next week. How far in advance do we need to notify the employee of schedule changes?
Currently, there isn’t a California law or federal law that specifies how much advance notice you are required to provide employees.
Instead, notice of schedule changes has been addressed at the local level with city and county ordinances. The local laws use names such as predictive scheduling or fair workweek ordinance.
Local Ordinances
Multiple cities and counties such as Berkeley, San Francisco, Emeryville, Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County, have adopted local ordinances that require a minimum amount of notice, and oftentimes include a penalty or predictability pay for failure to provide timely notice.
These local ordinances typically are specific to the industry, such as retail and fast food, and affect employers once they employ a certain number of employees and/or have a certain number of locations.
Many local ordinances require employers to provide schedules with two weeks or 14 days advance notice. Each of these ordinances has its own specific criteria and requirements, so if you have employees in multiple locations with different ordinances, you will need to review each of the ordinances for applicability to your employees.
To get more specific details, visit the Local Ordinances section on HRCalifornia.com.
Same Day Change: Reporting Time
When you change your employee’s schedule, but the employee has already arrived to start work and you don’t have them work, then the employee needs to be paid half of the hours they were scheduled to work, but never less than two hours and a maximum of four hours of pay for reporting time pay.
No Applicable Local Ordinance
If you are in an area that doesn’t have an applicable local ordinance, a best practice would be to provide reasonable advance notice. Reasonableness would depend on the circumstances.
A minor scheduling change could be asking an employee to stay an extra 15 minutes versus a more significant change, such as changing the employee’s start and end times or days of work.
For example, changing work schedules from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. to 9 a.m.–6 p.m. could have a significant impact on an employee’s personal life, such as child care, after school activities, dinner with the family, etc.
For this type of change, reasonable advance notice would be lengthier than asking the employee to stay an extra 15 minutes after work. When the scheduling change affects multiple employees, a good practice is to create an implementation plan, including communication planning, and work with management and employees to address and mitigate the impact the schedule changes could have.
Additionally, although local ordinances are not applicable here, they could be instructive in determining reasonable advance notice.
Policies and Past Practice
Employers also should review whether you have a policy or past practice that addresses schedule changes and be consistent in how you apply the policy or practice under similar circumstances.
However, your policy or past practice cannot ignore applicable local ordinances, and, as a best practice, still should provide reasonable advance notice.
Column based on questions asked by callers on the Labor Law Helpline, a service to California Chamber of Commerce preferred members and above. 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.
