Reporting Time Pay
By Corey Hanrahan
Employers may know about the California Labor Code, which grants employees certain protections from unlawful treatment by employers. However, the California Department of Industrial Relations also publishes wage orders (referred to as “Industrial Welfare Commission orders“) that offer protections for California employees. Part of those protections are what is known as “Reporting Time Pay.”
“…require[s] an employer to pay an employee for “half the usual or scheduled day’s work” for an employee who “is required to report to work and does report, but is not put to work…”
What is “Reporting Time Pay”?
These Industrial Welfare Commission orders require an employer to pay an employee for “half the usual or scheduled day’s work” for an employee who “is required to report to work and does report, but is not put to work or is furnished less than half said employee’s usual or scheduled day’s work.” This means that if an employee regularly works an eight hour shift, and reports to work on a scheduled day for an eight hour shift, but is told that “business is slow” or “there are too many employees” and that the employee is not needed, that the employer must pay that employee for four hours of work.
Enforcement of “Reporting Time Pay.”
Employers who do not pay employees legally required reporting time pay are in violation of the California Labor Code for not paying wages. A wage and hour attorney can bring a private legal action against the employer to recover the unpaid wages for the employer.