The Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) (commonly referred to as the “Labor Commissioner”) has revised the “Notice to Employee” that must be provided to newly hired non-exempt employees in accordance with the new regulations which became effective January 1, 2012.
As has been previously discussed in our Newsletters, the Labor Code was amended to require that all employers provide a “notice” to employees which outlined certain information regarding the payment of wages, pursuant to the Wage Theft Protection Act.
In order to implement this new law, the DLSE was tasked with creating a template for employers. The template has now been modified and the FAQs on the DLSE’s website has also been updated.
The new template and revised FAQ are available at the following website addresses:
Template:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/LC_2810.5_Notice.pdf
FAQ:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQs-NoticeToEmployee.html
Most of the changes to the template and FAQ’s are fairly minor and include:
- A signature on the acknowledgment of receipt of the form is optional, not mandatory;
- The Notice must be provided before the employee’s start date;
- The Notice does not require a the express designation of an employment agreement as “written” or “oral”. There was concern that requirement might serve to defeat the “at-will” concept of employment. Instead, the purpose of this information is simply to refer to whether the rate of pay was communicated in writing or verbally;
- The employer’s full formal legal name, including the entity designation and any “doing business as” names, must be included;
- Information must be provided if the hiring employer is a staffing agency or business.
Employers do not need to re-issue the notice to any current employee that has been hired as of January 1, 2012, unless there has been a substantive change to the information. Employers must use the new version of the notice for new hires going forward.