Opinion ID: 3053944
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: “Materially” Different

Text: There are three potentially applicable laws. For Plaintiffs Sullivan and Evich, they are California and Colorado law. For Plaintiff Burkow, they are California and Arizona law. We must compare the substantive provisions of California law with the substantive provisions of Colorado law and Arizona law, and must then consider whether each of the laws was intended to apply to Plaintiffs’ claim. [3] We begin with California’s overtime law. The California Labor Code provides: Eight hours of labor constitutes a day’s work. Any work in excess of eight hours in one workday and any work in excess of 40 hours in any one workweek and the first eight hours worked on the seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee. Any work in excess of 12 hours in one day shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the regular rate of pay for an employee. In addition, any work in excess of eight hours on any seventh day of a workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than twice the regular rate of pay of an employee. Cal. Lab. Code § 510(a). To summarize, this provision requires overtime pay of one and one-half times regular pay beyond 8 hours worked in any single day, 40 hours in one week, and the first 8 hours of work on the seventh day worked of any one workweek. Additionally, it requires double pay for hours worked beyond 12 in a day or 8 hours on the seventh day of any one workweek. [4] Contrary to Oracle’s assertions, the California Labor Code is clearly intended to apply to work done in California by nonresidents. The California Supreme Court has concluded SULLIVAN v. ORACLE CORP. 15269 that California’s employment laws govern all work performed within the state, regardless of the residence or domicile of the worker. In Tidewater Marine Western, Inc. v. Bradshaw, 927 P.2d 296, 301 (Cal. 1996), the Court wrote, “Like the criminal laws . . . , California employment laws implicitly extend to employment occurring within California’s state law boundaries[.]” Oracle relies on two cases to argue that the Labor Code should not be construed to extend to Plaintiffs’ work in California. We find Oracle’s arguments unconvincing. First, Oracle quotes a sentence from Tidewater Marine. The Court wrote, “If an employee resides in California, receives pay in California, and works exclusively, or principally, in California, then that employee is a ‘wage earner in California’ and presumptively enjoys the protection of . . . regulations [promulgated under the Labor Code].” Id. at 309. Oracle asks us to read into this sentence a negative inference that a nonresident is not a “wage earner” within the meaning of the Labor Code. But the status of a non-resident was not the issue in Tidewater Marine. Rather, the issue was whether California residents working outside California were covered by the Labor Code. The Court answered that they were covered. To the degree that any inference can be drawn from Tidewater Marine, it is the opposite from that drawn by Oracle. Two sentences before the sentence quoted by Oracle, the Court speculated that the legislature “may not have intended” the Labor Code to apply to “out-of-state businesses employing nonresidents, though the nonresident employees enter California temporarily during the course of the workday.” Id. (emphasis added). If the Court described an out-of-state employer’s employees coming into California temporarily during the course of a workday as the marginal case for Labor Code coverage, there is an inference that an in-state employer’s employees coming into California for entire workdays and workweeks is not a marginal case. That is, there is an inference that such a case comes within the Code’s coverage. 15270 SULLIVAN v. ORACLE CORP. Second, Oracle relies on Campbell v. Arco Marine, Inc., 50 Cal. Rptr. 2d 626 (Ct. App. 1996). In Campbell, Plaintiff had sued her California-based employer for sexual harassment in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”). The Court of Appeal dismissed her complaint as not covered by FEHA. Oracle describes the Court as having held “that the action must be dismissed because the plaintiff was not a resident of California and worked in California only on a limited basis.” That is not a fair description of the Court’s holding. The actual words of the Court of Appeal were: “We hold that the FEHA was not intended to apply to non-residents where, as here, the tortious conduct took place out of this state’s territorial boundaries.” Id. at 628 (emphasis added). Even if we assume that the coverage of FEHA is congruent with the coverage of the Labor Code, Campbell does not support Oracle’s argument. In our case, unlike in Campbell, the allegedly wrongful conduct took place inside rather than outside California. [5] We next consider Colorado and Arizona law. The relevant Colorado minimum wage regulation provides: Overtime Rate: employees shall be paid time and one-half of the regular rate of pay for any work in excess of: (1) forty (40) hours per workweek; (2) twelve (12) hours per workday, or (3) twelve (12) consecutive hours without regard to the starting and ending time of the workday (excluding duty free meal periods), whichever calculation results in the greater payment of wages. Hours worked in two or more workweeks shall not be averaged for computa- tion of overtime. Performance of work in two or more positions at different pay rates for the same employer shall be computed at the overtime rate based on the regular rate of pay for the position in which the overtime occurs, or at a weighted average of the rates for each position, as provided in the Fair Labor Standards Act. SULLIVAN v. ORACLE CORP. 15271 7 Colo. Code Regs. § 1103-1(4). Unlike California law, this provision only requires one and one-half regular pay when an employee works more than 12 hours in a day or more than 40 hours in a week. Also unlike California law, Colorado law does not impose a double-pay requirement, as California law does in some instances, nor does it require any overtime pay for work on the seventh consecutive day. [6] Arizona does not have its own state overtime law. The FLSA provides the only overtime requirements for employees in Arizona. See Industrial Commission of Arizona, Wage Payment Laws: Frequently Asked Questions, available at http:// www.ica.state.az.us/faqs/labor/wage_payment_laws.html#. [7] The district court concluded that the differences between California law and the laws of Colorado and Arizona are material, and we agree. We therefore proceed to the next step in the analysis.