An employer’s obligation when it comes to workplace seating in California
It's complicated and even a conscientious employer following the rule may have its workplace seating policy second-guessed
A regular reader suggested addressing the regulation requiring almost all California employers to provide suitable seating for employees. Deceptively simple rule To quote paragraph 14 in most of the occupation-specific, employee-protective wage orders governing the California workplace:
- All working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats.
- When employees are not engaged in the active duties of their employment and the nature of the work requires standing, an adequate number of suitable seats shall be placed in reasonable proximity to the work area and employees shall be permitted to use such seats when it does not interfere with the performance of their duties.
These terms don’t define themselves. An employer and an employee’s view of reasonableness may differ.
Work requiring employer-provided seating
In 2016, the California Supreme Court analyzed the seating rule in Kilby v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc.
The court rejected an all-or-nothing, holistic categorization of jobs as either standing or sitting based on how an employee spends most of their time. Instead, the court directed lower courts to “examine subsets of an employee’s total tasks and duties by location … and consider whether it is feasible for an employee to perform each set of location-specific tasks while seated.” Courts will consider “the actual tasks performed, or reasonably expected to be performed,” not written job descriptions.
Whether work “reasonably permits” the use of a seat depends on the totality of the circumstances. That analysis “begins with an examination of the relevant tasks, grouped bylocation, and whether the tasks can be performed while seated or require standing. This task-based assessment is also balanced against considerations of feasibility.”
Feasibility includes a qualitative analysis of such things as whether providing a seat would impede standing tasks and whether seated work would degrade the employee’s overall job performance.
Click here to read the full article written by SCMV Shareholder Dan Eaton and published in The San Diego Union-Tribune.