The CA Supreme Court’s Worker “On-Call” Ruling

Resolving a class action that goes back to 2005, California’s Supreme Court reinstated a $90 million judgement that had been overturned by an appeals court, and ruled that employers in the state cannot require employees to be on-call or on-duty during designated rest periods. The court determined that “the reference to a ‘rest’ period is premised on the ordinary meaning of rest: an interval of time free from labor, work or other employment-related duties,” as a client alert from Dentons put it. However, the post also notes this decision is something less than absolute, in the sense that “the mere possibility that an employee may be called back to work from a rest period, such as by a requirement to wear a pager, does not invalidate a rest-period policy.” Furthermore, there are circumstances in which an employer may apply for an exception to the requirement.