My husband works in California as a securiry gaurd. His company is probably the worst of the worst security companies ever (Yes, of course it's Allied Universal). These managers are constantly pulling a bunch of bullshit in regards to things like time off, sick pay, health care, pay structures and so much more. My husband is looking for another job but in the meantime, he's considering contacting a lawyer about some of the most recent infractions.
Here's the situation:
Employee schedules and site information are posted online. Lately, management has been changing his schedule at the last minute. Last night, he checked his schedule and he was scheduled to work at 10 pm this evening. Around 4pm he gets a text from his site asking if he can come in earlier (at 6pm). He responds that he can come in at 8pm and will do so. He starts getting ready at 6 planning to help out the team by showing up a little early at 7 but gets a text at 6:15 (from the site) saying he's late. He checks the schedule again and it now says he's scheduled at 6pm. He got ready angrily and plans on talking to his field supervisor as soon as he can actually get ahold of him (another Allied shenanigan is that the managers are ridiculously difficult to get ahold of.). This is the 3rd time this type of thing has happened to him and other employees have made the same complaints (to each other).
One of his co-workers said that since they have 24/7 access to the schedule online, it's legal for them to make changes at any time without notifying the employee but that seems unreasonable! That means that at 5:59 pm, they could change an employee's schedule to start at 6pm without it being physically possible for said employee to get ready, travel, etc. There's been threats of write ups for employees that don't work the forced overtime required when employees call out and others' shifts are adjusted. I do not understand how it could possible be legal to hold someone to a schedule without notice. I asked my husband if there was an option to receive push notifications when the schedule updates and he said no. They don't get notification in any other form either such as email or text, etc. This has to be illegal, right??
Some more background info: When my husband got hired on he told them his availability was from 8pm to 8am. They said that was fine but that agreement was made verbally during the interview. I'm not sure if that's actually on record anywhere or how we could check if it was. Whenever they assign him to a new site, he frequently has to remind them that his availability is 8pm to 8am, when he does they typically shift him to graves and he gets a relatively consistent schedule until they change his site again.
TL:DR Are there any laws in California, that require a certain amount of notice and/or actual communication from the company when it comes to changes in employee schedule? And in a slightly related note, can an employee be disciplined for failure to work outside of their given availability? Could given availability been seen as a contract between employer and employee?
Also, if there's a better place to post this please let me know.