Right of Recall for Laid-Off Hospitality Workers: Labor Code 2810.8
Do California hotels, event centers, and airport businesses still have to offer open jobs to workers laid off during the pandemic? Yes, until January 1, 2027. Labor Code section 2810.8, as amended by Assembly Bill 858 (Stats. 2025, ch. 280), requires covered employers to offer qualifying laid-off workers new positions in seniority order. Penalties and liquidated damages build up for every day a violation goes uncured, so the employer’s best defense is a clean, documented recall process.
Which employers does the recall law cover?
Specific kinds of businesses, which the statute calls enterprises. Under section 2810.8(a)(7), an enterprise “means a hotel, private club, event center, airport hospitality operation, airport service provider, or the provision of building service to office, retail, or other commercial buildings.”
Size thresholds matter. A hotel must contain “50 or more guest rooms, or suites of rooms,” and an event center is a structure “of more than 50,000 square feet or 1,000 seats” used for performances, sporting events, business meetings, or similar events, according to section 2810.8(a)(8) and (a)(9). Building service means “janitorial, building maintenance, or security services.”
The definition of employer is broad. It includes “any person, including a corporate officer or executive,” who owns or operates the enterprise and employs or controls the wages, hours, or working conditions of any employee, directly or “through the services of a temporary service or staffing agency or similar entity,” under section 2810.8(a)(6).
Who counts as a laid-off employee?
A worker employed for at least six months whose most recent separation came on or after March 4, 2020, for a reason related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Section 2810.8(a)(10) lists reasons such as “a public health directive, government shutdown order, lack of business, a reduction in force, or other economic, nondisciplinary reason due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The burden on that point sits with the employer. The statute creates “a presumption that a separation due to a lack of business, reduction in force, or other economic, nondisciplinary reason is due to a reason related to the COVID-19 pandemic, unless the employer establishes otherwise by a preponderance of the evidence.” An employer that believes a 2023 layoff had nothing to do with the pandemic needs records made at the time that show the real reason.
Workers who were discharged for cause aren’t laid-off employees under this definition, because the separation wasn’t economic or nondisciplinary. The discipline file is usually the evidence on that point.
What does the employer have to do when a position opens?
Offer it in writing and by seniority, within a short window. Section 2810.8(b)(1) says that “Within five business days of establishing a position, an employer shall offer its laid-off employees in writing” every available position for which they’re qualified. The offer goes “either by hand or to their last known physical address, and by email and text message to the extent the employer possesses such information.”
A laid-off worker is qualified “if the employee held the same or similar position at the enterprise at the time of the employee’s most recent layoff.” When more than one worker qualifies, the employer must offer the job “to the laid-off employee with the greatest length of service based on the employee’s date of hire for the enterprise,” under section 2810.8(b)(2). The worker then gets “at least five business days, from the date of receipt, in which to accept or decline the offer.”
If the employer passes over a laid-off worker for lack of qualifications and hires someone else, section 2810.8(b)(5) requires a written notice within 30 days stating the length of service of those hired instead, “along with all reasons for the decision.” That notice will be the first exhibit in any later complaint, so its reasons should be specific and true.
Does a sale or relocation end the obligation?
No. Under section 2810.8(b)(6), the law still applies when ownership changed but the enterprise “is conducting the same or similar operations,” when the employer’s form of organization changed, when “Substantially all of the assets of the employer were acquired by another entity that conducts the same or similar operations using substantially the same assets,” or when the operations moved to a different location. Buyers of hotels and building service contracts should ask for the seller’s laid-off employee records during diligence.
What are the penalties, and who enforces them?
The Labor Commissioner, exclusively. Section 2810.8(d) says the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement “shall have exclusive jurisdiction to enforce this section.” A laid-off worker files a complaint with the division and may be awarded hiring and reinstatement rights, front pay or back pay for each day the violation continues, and the value of lost benefits.
The penalties are what make delay expensive. Under section 2810.8(d)(3), a violator is subject to “a civil penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) for each employee whose rights under these provisions are violated and an additional sum payable as liquidated damages in the amount of five hundred dollars ($500), per employee, for each day the rights of an employee under this section are violated and continuing until such time as the violation is cured.” Interest is added on amounts due at the rate set by Civil Code section 3289(b), which is 10 percent per year, and the statute says “No criminal penalties shall be imposed.”
Because the liquidated damages run until the violation is cured, the most useful step after a complaint is often a prompt, proper offer to the worker. Fixing the problem early limits what’s owed.
What happens when the law sunsets?
The obligation ends, but old violations don’t. Section 2810.8(i) says the section “shall remain operative only until January 1, 2027,” and that “a violation of this section occurring on or before December 31, 2026, shall continue to be enforceable.” Employers should keep recall records well past the sunset. Subdivision (b)(4) separately requires keeping specified records “for at least three years, measured from the date of the written notice regarding the layoff.”
How does the exposure break down?
| Issue | Section 2810.8 | What it means for the employer |
|---|---|---|
| Who must be offered jobs | Six months of service, separated on or after March 4, 2020, for a pandemic-related reason (subd. (a)(10)) | Economic layoffs are presumed pandemic-related unless the employer proves otherwise |
| Offer timing | Within five business days of establishing a position (subd. (b)(1)) | Track when each position was created |
| Order of offers | Greatest length of service first (subd. (b)(2)) | Keep a seniority list by date of hire |
| Passing over a worker | Written notice within 30 days with all reasons (subd. (b)(5)) | The notice becomes evidence |
| Penalties | $100 per employee, plus $500 per employee per day until cured (subd. (d)(3)) | Cure quickly to stop the daily amount |
| Enforcement | Labor Commissioner, exclusively (subd. (d)) | Claims start as agency complaints |
What should an employer do when a recall complaint arrives?
- Preserve the records under a litigation hold: the layoff notices, the seniority list, the required contact records, every recall offer and how it was delivered, and the hiring file for each position filled since the layoffs.
- Calendar the response deadline on the Labor Commissioner complaint or citation, and check whether an employment practices liability (EPLI) policy has notice requirements.
- Identify who decided which positions to create and whom to hire, and make sure no one takes action against the worker that could look like retaliation, which subdivision (c) prohibits.
- Pull the evidence of why the worker was separated, if the company contends the layoff wasn’t pandemic-related, and any collective bargaining agreement that may contain an explicit waiver.
- Talk to a lawyer before making a corrective offer, responding to the agency, or discussing settlement, because the timing and terms of a cure can affect the daily liquidated damages.
Hospitality operators can read more about hospitality employer defense in California on the firm’s employment defense page.
Right of recall questions from California employers
Can a union contract waive the recall law?
Yes, but only explicitly. Section 2810.8(g) allows a waiver in a valid collective bargaining agreement “only if the waiver is explicitly set forth in that agreement in clear and unambiguous terms.” A general management-rights clause or a recall provision that doesn’t mention the statute probably won’t be enough, and unilateral implementation of terms doesn’t count as a waiver.
Can a laid-off worker sue us in court under this statute?
Not under section 2810.8 itself. The statute gives the Labor Commissioner exclusive jurisdiction, and the Commissioner can sue to enforce it. It doesn’t limit a discharged employee’s common law wrongful termination claim, and local ordinances can impose greater standards, so employers in cities with their own recall rules should check those too.
Do we have to recall workers we laid off for performance reasons?
No, if the separation really was disciplinary. The statute covers separations for economic, nondisciplinary reasons tied to the pandemic. The risk is a layoff labeled economic that the company later says was really about performance. The presumption favors the worker on that question, so the company needs documentation from the time of the layoff.
Can we make conditional offers to several workers at once?
Yes. Section 2810.8(b)(3) allows “simultaneous, conditional offers of employment to laid-off employees,” with the final offer conditioned on the seniority order. That approach can speed up hiring while keeping the preference system intact, as long as the most senior qualified worker gets the final offer.
If a laid-off worker says you skipped them in the recall
If your company has received a Labor Commissioner complaint about recall rights, the seniority list and the dates of each offer usually decide what’s owed. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents employers defending employment lawsuits and claims through its business litigation practice, including claims involving right-of-recall obligations. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.
Sources
The statute is Labor Code section 2810.8, as amended by Assembly Bill 858 (Stats. 2025, ch. 280), effective January 1, 2026. Interest runs under Civil Code section 3289.
This post is general information about California and federal employment law as of November 7, 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employment statutes, regulations, and court decisions change often, and the outcome of any claim depends on its facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.