Below is a preview of one of the articles in the new KROST Quarterly Hospitality Issue, "California’s Wage Order 7: What You Need to Know" by By Gina Gross - KROST Restaurant Accounting & Consulting.

"Many restaurants have on-call policies that require employees to call in to find out whether they need to work their scheduled shifts in advance of their start time. In most cases, if the employee is told not to come in, the employee
is not compensated for the shift.

This month, in the case of Ward v. Tilly’s, the California Second Appellate Court overturned a Los Angeles trial judge and ruled that requiring workers to call in to find out if they have to report for work before they start triggers California’s reporting time pay law. In this case, the plaintiff was a retail employee who was required to call in two hours before a scheduled shift to see if she should report to work. The on-call shift had a start and end time. She did not get paid if she was told not to physically report for work.

In the Appellate Court opinion, on-call shifts “burden employees, who cannot take other jobs, go to school, or make social plans during on-call shifts—but who nonetheless received no compensation from the employer unless..."

Read more on California's Wage Order 7