Is the "Make-up Time" provision in California law AB 60 something that a company MUST offer to its employees? Or, can a company choose NOT to allow employees to make-up lost time as detailed in AB 60?

Rita Risser replies:

According to the California Labor Commission, you are not required to offer the time. Indeed, they specifically prohibit you from in any way suggesting to employees that they should take make-up time instead of overtime pay. Here is an excerpt of the opinion memo, which can be found at here.

"Under section 513, make up time is permitted if the employer approves the employee's signed written request to make up time that has been or that will be lost as a result of the employee's personal needs. The employer may choose to grant or deny any request to work make up time. ... Time that is taken off in one workweek can only be made up during that same workweek; if it is worked in a different workweek than when it was taken, the daily overtime hours worked must be paid as overtime. "The statute expressly prohibits employers from "encouraging or otherwise soliciting an employee to request an employer's approval to take personal time off and make up the work hours within the same week pursuant to this section." This does not prohibit employers from merely informing workers of the provisions of this statute; however, it clearly does prohibit employers from suggesting, recommending (or certainly, ordering) that workers "request" make up time.

"We have been asked whether make-up time can be worked in advance of the date that the time being made up is lost. There is nothing in the statute that would prohibit this, so long as the make-up work is performed during the same workweek in which the time is lost."