Everything You Need to Know About California Labor Code 245.5
California Labor Code 245.5 outlines which characteristics qualify a person as an employee in a company. Here’s everything you need to know about California Labor Code 245.5.
Labor Code 245.5 provides criteria for what constitutes an employee. For context, the law also defines an “employer” as anyone who employs another person under any appointment or contract of hire. In addition to independent businesses, employers can also hire someone to work for the state, political subdivisions of the state, or municipalities.
What is a collective bargaining agreement?
A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written legal contract between an employer and a union representing employees. The CBA is produced after extensive rounds of negotiations between the parties. A CBA can cover wages, working hours, and other conditions of employment.
Topics in a CBA can be categorized as either mandatory, voluntary, permissive, or prohibited subjects. Mandatory subjects are required by the law and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), such as wages, discipline, overtime, bonuses, etc. Voluntary and/or permissive subjects can be negotiated and are not required by law. These subjects can pertain to international union matters or the makeup of the company’s board of directors. Illegal, or prohibited subjects, that would violate the law in any way. Examples of this can be if the employer only hires employees from a union, or if any workplace discrimination takes place.
What does not constitute an employee?
By law, being an employee does not include:
- Someone covered by a valid CBA, if said agreement includes wages, working conditions of employees, hours of work, premium wage rates for overtime hours, an hourly rate that is not less than 30% of the state’s minimum wage rate, any restrictions on the use of paid sick days/leave, and any binding arbitration of disputes (where both parties agree for their case to be heard by a third, neutral party) about the application of the company’s paid sick leave policies.
- If the person is employed by a construction agency covered by a CBA, with all of the same tenets previously listed, and was either entered before January 1, 2015, or the requirements of the article were waived clearly. For further context, an “employee in the construction industry” entails any person who performs work in construction, alteration, building, demolition, evacuation, remodeling, renovation, maintenance, or other specific work included in Chapter 9 of Division 3 of Business and Professions Code.
- Someone who is employed as an air carrier or cabin crew member on an aircraft and subject to the Title II provisions 45 U.S.C. Section 151 of the federal Railway Labor Act, and compensated for time off equivalent to or exceeding the amount set in Section 246.
- Someone who works for the city, county, district, state, or other public entity who receives retirement benefits and is employed without being reinstated into their respective retirement system, as seen in Chapters 3 and 12 of the Government Code.
Defining Paid Sick Days
In the context of the Labor Code and CBAs, paid sick days are an option for an employee to be paid the same wage they would make while working should they need to stay home to recover from being ill. The employer pays the employee in the same manner as they normally would.
Related: Sick Leave Laws in California: What You Need to Know
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