California voters this month approved Proposition 11, an initiative that, as to ambulance workers, overturns the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc. Augustus interpreted a statute and a regulation as requiring uninterrupted rest breaks for employees.
In March, the Supreme Court granted the Ninth Circuit’s request to answer state law questions regarding rest breaks for ambulance attendants. But Proposition 11 might provide the answers that the Ninth Circuit is looking for in the case, Stewart v. San Luis Ambulance, Inc. It’s thus not surprising that the Supreme Court now has a question of its own, today directing the parties, and inviting amici curiae, to file briefs about this: “What effect, if any, does Proposition 11, the Emergency Ambulance Employee Safety and Preparedness Act (Lab. Code, § 880 et seq.) have on the resolution of the questions presented and on whether this court should decide the questions of California law presented in a matter pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (see Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.548(a))?”
Proposition 11 hasn’t taken effect yet, but it most probably will next month. (See here and here.)