Who’s a Boss?

A weekly roundup of business-related bills, upcoming legislative issues, regulatory news and other developments of local interest.

The Industrial Welfare Commission, which made headlines with its vote last week to eliminate the eight-hour day as the standard for overtime pay, approved another measure that day that received little attention but also has far-reaching implications.

The panel, whose members are appointed by the governor, voted to make it easier for firms to classify workes as managers, making them exempt them from overtime pay altogether.

Under current state regulations, employees can be classified as managers only if they spend more than 50% of their day in administrative, supervisorial and intellectual duties. Their salaries also must be at or above a certain level. The panel, though, has voted to change the rules to match federal regulations that give employers a broader range of criteria to use to classify employees as managers.

Management has lobbied for the change for some time, but the issue has taken on urgency in light of recent class-action lawsuits brought by fast-food workers and others claiming they are owed overtime pay because they were given managerial titles but not the required duties.

“This is a more blatant take-away for workers than the proposal to eliminate daily overtime because in this case there is no argument that can be made that workers benefit,� said Tom Rankin, president of the California Labor Federation.

The commission will hold three hearings to gather public comment on the new rules.