San Diego - natural disaster pay?

[Crispix]

San Diego, CA

I'm a small business owner with a dozen employees. Some questions related to the recent disaster in our area:

1. Am I under any obligation to pay employees who could not come to work because of the wildfires this week? I suspect the answer is "no". (Our office policy does not cover this situation, however sick days, jury duty, etc., are unpaid if vacation time is not used.)

2. If I choose to pay employees who could not come to work because of the fires, are there any rules regarding how this could be applied? I have one employee (the "bad seed") who used the fires as an excuse not to come in all week. (There are other issues with her, but that's another post). Another set of employees ("the good seeds") were truly unable to come in because of closed roads and mandatory evacuations.

Ideally, I'd like to do the nice thing and pay the employees who were truly affected by this situation and were not able to come in for two days. I do not want to pay this problematic employee who is already on probation and used the fire as an excuse to stay away from work for four days. In all likelihood this bad seed will have to be let go anyway in the near future.

3. If a standard rule must be applied to everyone, is there anything wrong with stating: "we will pay for up to two days maximum if you were unable to come to work because your home was under mandatory evacuation or your commute was impossible due to closed roads" -- and all other missed days are either unpaid or vacation time? This way I can pay the good seeds for all the days they missed, and only have to pay the bad seed for two days out of the whole week.

4. Is there anything wrong with just not paying anyone for missed days and leaving it at that? (oops, repeat of question #1)

I want to do the right thing to loyal employees, but at the same time I'm a business owner and want to make sure I'm not setting any bad precedent, violating any employment law, etc. I also need to keep my ducks in a row in case I have to fire this bad seed soon. (Again, that's a separate story and perhaps I'll post about that soon, too.)

Thanks very much for the advice!

 

[ecmst12]

If you asked for proof of the roads that were closed and whether there was an alternate route available, or proof of mandatory evacuation etc, would the "good seeds" be able to come up with it? If so, that seems a fair way to make the decision.

 

[eerelations]

Legally you don't have to pay any of your employees for not coming in, no matter what the reason. The only legal issue you might have is with exempt employees, who I believe cannot be have their pay deducted except in one-week increments. (And I may be quite wrong on this second point! My esteemed colleagues, please step in and correct me if required!)

Legally, you may also choose to pay your good seeds and not pay your bad seed. However, this may cause some dissent among your staff as your bad seed may start complaining to the good seeds, causing people to take sides etc.

Out of the four days your bad seed didn't come to work, how many of those days were those where it was physically impossible for him/her to come to work?

If you want to go above and beyond the law, providing pay continuance for everyone who physically could not come to work, I agree with ecmst12's recommendation that you do just that - and include your bad seed in this process. This is the fairest route, and still leaves you room to manage the bad seed's work performance in more standard best-practice ways.

 

[cbg]

The only legal issue you might have is with exempt employees, who I believe cannot be have their pay deducted except in one-week increments.

In many cases this would be correct. However, exempt employees who take a full day off for personal reasons can legally be docked. This would be considered a personal reason.

Personally I think it's a bit much for an employer to dock an employee for missing time from work for this reason, but legally they CAN do it.