BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2075
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Date of Hearing: April 9, 2008
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
Sandre Swanson, Chair
AB 2075 (Fuentes) - As Introduced: February 19, 2008
SUBJECT : Wages; execution of release of claim or right.
SUMMARY : Prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to
execute a timesheet containing false statements of actual hours
worked as a condition of being paid. Makes technical
nonsubstantive changes as well.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Prohibits an employer from requiring the execution of a
release of claim or right on account of wages due or to become
due or made as an advance on wages to be earned unless payment
of those wages has been made.
2)States it is a misdemeanor for an employer to violate the
prohibition and a release required or executed in violation of
the prohibition is null and void.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author's office increasingly,
unscrupulous employers protect themselves from litigation over
underpayment of wages or meal & rest period violations by
adopting false pay records and timekeeping systems. In many
instances, these employers have instituted a practice of
requiring their employees to sign off on timesheets which do not
reflect actual hours worked and which are created at the
direction of the employer or his/her staff, and/or to sign
declarations attached to their timesheets that they have
received all their rest and meal periods when, in fact, they
have not. These statements are generally required to be signed
before the timesheets are turned over to the employer and wages
are paid. Workers who question this practice are often
retaliated against.
The sponsor, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation,
points to the following examples to demonstrate the extent of
the problem:
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Tulare County; Several hundred employees of one company were
routinely required as a precondition to being paid to fill out
their time sheets as instructed by the employer's staff and then
to sign it with this false declaration: "The hours represented
above are the actual hours that I worked during the indicated
dates. I received a meal period for at least thirty minutes
every day that I worked and a rest period in the morning and
afternoon of at least 10 minutes every day for every day I
worked"
Stanislaus County: Employees of one company were all required to
sign a false statement that they were correctly paid for all
hours worked and received all legally-required rest and meal
periods. Several employees who refused to sign this false
statement were fired.
Riverside County: All employees of one company are required to
sign the following statement before being paid: "I have reviewed
the time worked as recorded above and it correctly reflects the
time that I worked during the pay period. I have taken all
required meals and breaks unless otherwise indicated on the time
card....I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is
true and correct."
Los Angeles County: (#1) The owner of a landscaping company
requires approximately 90 employees to return to the business
office at the end of the day to sign pre-prepared false time
cards that reflect an 8 hour work day, even though employees
often work 9.5 hours per day.
(#2) The owner of a garment factory in downtown Los Angeles
required - over a three-year period - all employees to sign
their names to timecards that had been falsified by the employer
to reflect fewer hours than the employees actually worked.
Employees received their pay only after signing their names to
the falsified cards.
(# 3) The owner of a franchise fast-food restaurant requires two
of his employees who work the night shift to sign their names to
falsified time cards before they receive their pay. Although the
employees punch their own timecards, a manager manipulates the
punched time in the computer to ensure that the cards reflect no
overtime.
(#4) The owner of several car washes requires his employees -
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approximately 150 in total - to sign their names to falsified
time cards before they receive their pay. The employer writes
the timecards himself, and simply writes fewer hours than each
employee actually worked.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
Bet Tzedek Legal Services believes this bill will make it clear
to employers, employees and advocates that it is unlawful for an
employer to require employees to sign false statements of hours
worked as a condition of being paid. This measure would
increase the likelihood that low-wage workers receive the wages
that they earned.
Other supporter comments mirror the sponsor and author's office
arguments.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
The California Employment Law Council opposes this measure for
the following reasons;
The law already contains many requirements on employers
to correctly report the hours worked by employees, with
significant penalties for not compensating work time "off
the clock";
It is unclear exactly what would be prohibited under the
bill: employers routinely require employees to sign time
cards indicating their hours worked. If the information is
false, has the employer required the execution of a release
"as a condition of being paid"?;
There is no requirement that the employer knew that the
information is false, which could set the employer up for
an additional layer of "off the clock" penalties for
unknowingly violating the law.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Amalgamated Transit Union
Bet Tzedek Legal Services
California Conference of Machinists
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
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California Nurses Association
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (Sponsor)
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council
Engineers and Scientists of California
IFPTE Local 21
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund
UNITE HERE!
United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Western States Council
Opposition
California Chamber of Commerce
California Employment Law Council
Analysis Prepared by : Lorie Erickson / L. & E. / (916)
319-2091