Continued exemption is not guaranteed, as organized labor has many friends in the Davis administration, as well as in the Legislature. Additional workers now covered Section 21 of AB 60 reinstates the earlier Wage Orders that specifically exempted classes of employees - such as family members employees. However, these Wage Orders remain in effect only until the effective date of new Wage Orders issued by the IWC after July 1, 2000. Presumably, if the IWC wants to follow the lead of the Legislature, it may delete or restrict those exemptions. Notably, employers employing registered nurses can no longer rely upon the professional exemption to avoid overtime, regardless of salary or scope of the nurse's professional responsibilities.
Registered nurses can be exempt only if they meet the administrative or executive exemptions.
This provision was aimed at hospital and nursing home employees, but applies to all nurse employees, including plant nurses. The wage orders have typically exempted drivers subject to the federal Motor Carrier Act or governed by certain California highway safety rules. For interstate carriers, there are sound legal arguments in support of exemption as a matter of federal safety law, but until the IWC begins its review of exemption, we will not know for sure whether this is the prevailing view, and what legal challenges may lie ahead. Hours of makeup work time will not give rise to overtime liability only if the makeup time is performed in the same workweek in which time was lost and only if the makeup time, when added to the regular hours worked in a day, do not exceed 11 hours. To take advantage of the makeup time allowance, the employee must sign a written request for it.