"FALSE" TIMECARD MAY MEAN MISDEMEANOR

Recent state legislation prohibits employers from requiring employees - as a condition of being paid - to sign a timesheet containing false statements of actual hours worked. Labor Code section 206.5 has been amended, effective January 1, 2009, to define an unlawful "execution of a release" to include an employee signing a statement of hours worked during a pay period which the employer knows is false, in order to be paid for the hours recorded (or worked).

Employers who require their employees to submit timesheets attesting to hours that have not yet been worked should evaluate that practice because such a practice could constitute a misdemeanor under the amended statute.