Cutting hours that have already been scheduled?

November 10, 2011 11:58 PM

What are the regulations or laws in California relating to employers sending you home from work (because it's slow) after your hours have already been scheduled?

California: My mom works in a salon where she needs to work at least 30 hours/week to keep her health insurance, which is fully paid by the company. Each week, she and everyone else is scheduled to work 30 hours, but when they're at the salon, they are often asked or told to go home early when it's a slow day. Basically, the company doesn't want to pay their hourly wages when no customers are coming in. Lately, everyone has been asked to go home early. Unfortunately, this affects those who need to work 30 hrs to keep their insurance benefits.Can anyone point me to any resource on this particular issue? I would SOOOO appreciate it!

posted by KimikoPi to work & money (6 answers total)

That's called Reporting Time Pay. I'm not sure exactly how that works with the benefits situation, but I would think that reporting time pay would count.

"Each workday an employee is required to report to work, but is not put to work or is furnished with less than half of his or her usual or scheduled day's work, the employee must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day's work, but in no event for less than two hours nor more than four hours, at his or her regular rate of pay."
posted by Garm at 12:07 AM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does it in fact affect her if she works less than 30 hours? It may be that eligibility is based on scheduled hours, not actual hours worked.
posted by megatherium at 4:26 AM on November 11, 2011

These guys have a terrible website but good staffers and will be able to answer your question or point you to someone who can.
posted by Aizkolari at 6:11 AM on November 11, 2011

By the way --while its true the employer doesn't want to pay hourly wages when its not busy--it's just as likely they don't want to pay for the health insurance.

What I mean is, the dropped hours could be an intentional effort to make sure they're not paying for health insurance, which is likely a big expense for a small business.

Or it could just be poor planning/overstaffing.
posted by vitabellosi at 6:25 AM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Call the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center. They hold free in-person and telephonic legal clinics, and serve all of California. A law student (most likely) will conduct an intake call with your mom and will be able to provide her with information, following consulation with an employment law attorney.
posted by anya32 at 6:41 AM on November 11, 2011

Yeah I hate to say this but it sounds like they are trying to get out of paying health insurance...
posted by radioamy at 7:56 AM on November 11, 2011