Parth

When an employer changes its shift schedule to accommodate its employees’ scheduling desires, the employer may reduce the employee pay rate to pay its employees the same wages they received under the former schedule, so long as the rate reduction was not designed to circumvent the provisions (including overtime) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

I. BACKGROUND

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (“PVHMC”) is a hospital located in Pomona, California that has at all relevant times been an “employer” subject to the FLSA. The FLSA requires an employer (such as PVHMC) to pay its employees at one-and-one-half times the employees’ “regular rate” for any “employment in excess of eight hours in any workday and in excess of eighty hours in [a] fourteen-day period.” 29 U.S.C. § 207©.

Prior to 1989 or 1990, PVHMC scheduled its nurses to work almost exclusively in 8-hour shifts. However, many PVHMC nurses preferred working 12-hour shifts in order to have more days away from the hospital. The nurses, therefore, requested 12-hour shift schedules. In response to these requests, PVHMC developed and implemented an optional 12-hour shift schedule and pay plan in 1989-90. The pay…