By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM
Published October 25, 2026. Last updated November 6, 2026.
Short answer
Write the policy around how your people actually get to work: a short grace window, a clear call-in rule and consistent discipline. California adds pay rules, because a shift cut short can trigger reporting time pay and a split shift can add a premium, and accrued paid sick leave cannot be counted against an employee as an absence. Bay Area employers with 50 or more full-time employees must also offer commuter benefits.
A bus that runs ten minutes late does not know your start time. A policy that treats that delay the same as oversleeping produces two predictable results: good people leave, and the ones who stay learn to hide the real reason they were late. A fair policy holds the line on attendance and still fits how your workforce travels. This is part 3 of the Urban and Suburban Employer Series, which begins with part 1. The others are part 2, part 4, part 5, part 6 and part 7.
Many urban employees reach work by bus or train, and the same piece applies to a suburban employer whose staff face long car commutes. The delay changes, and the policy question is the same. I grew up in Oakland, I have worked with employers in both settings and I am not an attorney. I am writing from the view that a punctuality rule should be firm, clear and written for the workforce you really have.
An employer can set a start time and apply a written attendance policy, but a policy that ignores how people get to work tends to fail in practice. California does not hand employers a rule that treats a late train as an excused absence, and it does not forbid a fair lateness policy. What California does regulate is the pay around the shift and the protected leave around it.
The practical test is consistency. Write down what counts as late, what counts as a no-show and what happens at each step, then apply it the same way to every employee. A manager who excuses one person’s late bus and disciplines another’s creates the unequal treatment that employees notice first. My guide to performance improvement plans covers how to document attendance problems fairly.
Two Wage Order rules apply when you change a shift, and both are easy to miss. The first is reporting time pay. Under Section 5 of the IWC Wage Order 5 for restaurants and hospitality, and the matching section of the other industry orders, an employee who reports to work on a scheduled day and is not put to work, or is given less than half of the usual or scheduled day, must be paid for half the usual or scheduled day. That payment is at least 2 hours and no more than 4 hours, at the regular rate, and never below minimum wage.
If you send an employee home after a slow hour, you owe the pay. The exceptions are narrow: threats to people or property, civil authorities recommending a stop, a utility or sewer failure, and an Act of God or another cause outside your control. The Labor Commissioner’s reporting time pay FAQ adds that the pay counts as wages and that an employee does not have to be physically present, which it ties to the court decision in Ward v. Tilly’s. Calling people off a shift at the last minute can trigger it.
The second rule is the split shift premium. Under Section 4(C) of the Wage Orders, a split shift is a workday broken by unpaid gaps that you set, other than meal or rest breaks. You owe one extra hour of pay at the minimum wage for that day, and the Labor Commissioner’s split shift page says pay above minimum wage offsets it. Employers who schedule a morning rush and an evening rush with an empty middle should check this first.
My meal and rest break guide covers the break rules that sit next to these.
Paid sick leave cannot be treated as an attendance violation when the employee uses accrued leave for a covered reason. The Labor Commissioner’s paid sick leave page says an employer generally cannot discipline an employee for using accrued, available sick leave, including part of a day for a doctor’s appointment, and that counting a protected absence as an attendance occurrence is generally not allowed. Labor Code section 246.5 bars retaliation, and it presumes retaliation when an employer takes adverse action within 30 days of an employee’s complaint or use of leave.
A late bus is not a covered reason, so it does not draw on sick leave. The overlap that causes trouble is different. An employee who is sick and also late, or who uses an hour of sick leave and then arrives late, can land in a gray zone. Train managers to ask what the absence was for before they add a point.
State law gives employees at least 40 hours or 5 days of paid sick leave a year, per the DIR page, and a cap on total accrual of 80 hours or 10 days. Local rules may add to it. Oakland’s Measure FF accrues one hour per 30 hours worked and covers people who work 2 or more hours a week in Oakland, according to the City of Oakland labor standards page. The city’s regulations treat call-in notice up to 2 hours before a shift as presumptively acceptable for unforeseeable absences. My guide to California leave laws and the post on Oakland employment laws go deeper.
If an employee has no leave left, or the absence is not for a covered reason, you can generally apply your attendance policy to the unprotected part of the absence. Apply it the same way every time.
Keep the rule short, specific and easy to follow on a phone at a bus stop. A good rule answers four questions in plain words: how late is late, how and when does an employee call, who do they reach and what happens next.
Here is an example, written to be adapted to your business and checked against your own policies and any local rules.
Example: “You are on time if you clock in by your start time. If you may be late, call or text your supervisor as soon as you know, and at least 30 minutes before your shift when you can. Arriving up to 10 minutes after your start time because of a transit delay will be recorded but will not count as an attendance occurrence the first two times in any 90-day period. Absences covered by paid sick leave are never counted as attendance occurrences.”
The example numbers are placeholders for you to choose. What matters is that the rule is written, short and applied the same way to every employee.
Some do. The Bay Area Commuter Benefits Program applies to employers with an average of 50 or more full-time employees working in the nine-county Bay Area Air Quality Management District, according to the Air District’s program page. Check the program page for how the district defines full-time and which workers count toward the 50.
A covered employer must offer at least one option the program lists, which include a pre-tax commuter benefit, an employer subsidy, employer-provided transit and an alternative that cuts solo trips, such as telework. The steps are to name a coordinator, choose a benefit, register at 511.org, tell employees and update the registration each year, per the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s program page. Employers under 50 are exempt and are asked to update their count on the registration site. The district keeps penalty authority under the Health and Safety Code.
For employees who ride transit, a pre-tax benefit or a subsidy is a practical way to lower the cost of getting to work. It is a retention tool as much as a compliance item.
You apply it the same way by writing it down, training the people who enforce it and checking the results. Give every manager the same one-page rule, the same examples and the same form for recording an exception. Review attendance records once a quarter and look for patterns by manager, shift and site.
Check whether your city has a scheduling ordinance. San Francisco, Emeryville and Berkeley have them for covered retail, restaurant and other employers above certain size thresholds, which are listed at the city sources and in my guide to Bay Area local employment ordinances. I did not find a general predictive scheduling ordinance for Oakland, so confirm with the city’s labor standards office for your business.
This week, pull your attendance policy and check four things: the grace window, the call-in steps, the sick leave carve-out and whether managers apply it the same way. Then look at your last month of schedule changes for any cut shift that should have triggered reporting time pay. If you want a second pair of eyes on the policy, my California employee handbook template includes attendance language, and the handbook gap checker shows what is missing.
The schedule rules here fit into one chain from schedule to payroll.
Data current as of October 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.
McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.
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This article is general information, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation is different; for advice on yours, talk with an employment attorney.
Related questions
September 18, 2026
A 30-minute meal before the end of the fifth hour, 10-minute rest breaks by the four-hour block, and a premium hour for each miss. PAGA turns misses into penalties.
September 19, 2026
Paid sick leave starts at one employee. At five, add up to four months of pregnancy disability leave and 12 weeks of CFRA, and the two can stack.
September 23, 2026
Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville and San Jose each add their own wage, sick leave and scheduling rules. Where the work happens decides which apply.
