How should an employer schedule required training for employees who depend on public transit?

You can set and enforce an attendance rule for required training, and a late bus is not one of the reasons the paid sick leave statute protects. The statute lists specific purposes, such as diagnosis, care or treatment of a health condition, and a transit delay is not among them (Lab. Code 246.5(a)). So the question is not whether you may. It is whether your rule fits the way your people get to work.

A punctuality rule that ignores the timetable turns a scheduling problem into a discipline problem. If a third of the team rides one bus line and the session starts a minute after it arrives, you will collect late arrivals and write-ups that say more about your schedule than about your people. I would fix the schedule first.

This page is about required training. The same logic applies to ordinary shifts, and to suburban employers whose staff face long car commutes.

Two rules in the wage orders apply, and I read them in the text of Orders 4 and 5. Other orders carry their own sections, so open the one for your industry at the DIR wage order index.

Reporting time pay. When an employee is required to report, does report, and is not put to work or is given less than half the usual or scheduled day, the employee is paid for half the usual or scheduled day, between two and four hours, at the regular rate and not below minimum wage (8 CCR 11050, section 5(A); 8 CCR 11040, section 5(A)). A second required report in one day with less than two hours of work pays two hours. The rule does not apply when operations cannot continue because of threats, a utility failure, or a cause outside the employer’s control (section 5(C)).

A required session counts as work, as the paid training time article explains. In my reading, a session you cancel after staff have traveled in falls under this rule.

Split shift premium. A split shift is a schedule interrupted by unpaid, non-working periods the employer sets, other than meal and rest periods. When an employee works one, the Order adds one hour’s pay at the minimum wage on top of minimum wage for that workday (section 4(C) in both Orders). A morning session, a long unpaid gap and an evening shift is the pattern to look for. Schedule the session next to the shift, not apart from it.

Paid sick leave cannot be counted against an employee. Labor Code 246.5(c)(1) bars an employer from denying the right to use accrued sick days and from discharging, demoting, suspending or discriminating against an employee for using them (Lab. Code 246.5(c)(1)).

The Labor Commissioner’s paid sick leave FAQs apply that to points systems. If an employee has accrued sick leave and uses it for a covered purpose, giving the employee an attendance occurrence for the absence is not permitted. The same FAQ says that an absence beyond the leave the employee has accrued can be handled under the attendance policy (DLSE Paid Sick Leave FAQs, question 3).

For training, that means a missed required session because of an illness the employee covers with accrued leave does not earn a point. It also means the session has to be made up. A policy that treats the missed session as a failure of the employee, rather than as a scheduling job for you, will conflict with the statute sooner or later.

Four elements, in my practice. They are my recommendations, not requirements.

1. A grace window written into the invitation. State the start time and how long the room stays open to late arrivals. A short window respects transit variability without letting the session drift
2. One call-in channel. Name a number or a message thread that someone watches before the session. Staff on a delayed bus can use it from the platform
3. A make-up path. Offer a second session, a recording or a short catch-up with the trainer, and say which one counts for the required topic
4. An end time that respects the last convenient bus. Ask your staff which lines they use and set the end accordingly

A hypothetical line for an invitation: “The session starts at 2:00 p.m. and the room stays open until 2:10. If your transit is delayed, message the session line and join when you arrive. A make-up session is on the calendar for Thursday.” Treat that as an example to adapt.

If long commutes make an in-person session hard for part of the team, a live online option helps. Hybrid rooms are two rooms covers how to run both without short-changing either.

Some do. The Air District’s Bay Area Commuter Benefits Program, Regulation 14, Rule 1, covers public, private and non-profit employers with an average of 50 or more full-time employees per week in the District. Full-time means at least 30 hours a week, and a covered employee averages at least 20 hours a week in the prior month, excluding seasonal and temporary workers (BAAQMD Regulation 14, Rule 1, section 102).

A covered employer offers at least one of three options: a pre-tax program under IRC Section 132(f), an employer-paid subsidy for transit or vanpool costs, or employer-provided transportation. An employer may also propose an alternative with written approval. Registration is updated and verified annually (sections 301, 302, 404 and 406). Confirm the current version of the rule and your registration status with the Air District.

Below 50 full-time employees the rule does not require anything. A transit pass subsidy is still a practical way to make required sessions easier to attend, and it is the kind of benefit staff who ride transit notice.

Write the rule, apply it to the next ten late arrivals the same way, and keep a short record of what happened. That record also helps you notice the pattern a schedule problem leaves behind. If the same line causes the same lateness each week, change the schedule.

• Record the scheduled time, the arrival time, the reason given and the outcome for each late arrival to a required session
• Have one person decide, so the same facts produce the same result
• Review the record after each cycle of sessions and move the start time if the same pattern repeats
• Keep training attendance records together with the rest of your training records, which Part 5 covers

A consistent rule protects the employees who ride transit and protects you if a decision is questioned.

Is commute time to a required training session paid?

This page does not cover commute pay. The paid training time article covers when session time is hours worked. Check the Labor Commissioner’s enforcement manual before you change a pay practice for travel to a site other than the regular one.

Can an employer require employees to arrive early for training?

If the employer requires it, the time is under the employer’s control and is part of the paid session. Say the start time you mean and pay from there.

Does this apply to suburban employers?

Yes. The pay rules and the sick leave rule are the same. The scheduling problem looks different, because the delay is traffic, not a bus, but the policy fixes are the same.