Governor Jerry Brown yesterday signed AB 2605, which provides an exemption for certain oil workers from the Supreme Court’s 2016 rest-period decision in Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc. The court there interpreted a statute and a regulation to mean that employers must “relinquish any control over how employees spend their break time, and relieve their employees of all duties — including the obligation that an employee remain on call.”
The new legislation says that the no-on-call rule does not apply to “an employee holding a safety-sensitive position at a petroleum facility to the extent that the employee is required to carry and monitor a communication device, such as a radio, pager, or other form of instant communication, and to respond to emergencies, or is required to remain on employer premises to monitor the premises and respond to emergencies.”
In November, California voters will decide whether to create a similar exemption for ambulance workers.
