04/20/2024

California’s top court tells employers to give workers a chair

Pamela Bowlin, a retired CVS cashier, says the years she spent being forced to stand while waiting on customers took their toll.

“At the end of the day, I would be exhausted from standing in one place for hours and my legs would ache,” Bowlin said in a sworn declaration. “I also suffered from varicose veins which were painful, especially when standing.”

On Monday, the California Supreme Court told workers like Bowlin — perhaps millions of them — in effect that they could take a load off.

Bowlin had joined a class-action lawsuit against the pharmacy chain, one of dozens filed in California during the last several years against corporations that required workers to stand. In a unanimous ruling Monday, the court clarified labor law in a way that is likely to make it more difficult for companies to deny workers a chair.

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