California Law on Reimbursement of Expenses by Employer

It is a common practice for employers to condition reimbursement of expenses incurred by employees on timely submission of those expenses to the employer’s accounting department. A typical expenses reimbursement policy might state that an employee must submit his claim for expense reimbursement within 90 days of incurring that expense, or otherwise the employee will not be eligible to be reimbursed for the same expenses.

These kinds of policies however are generally unlawful. Under California Labor Code section 2802, an employer shall indemnify an employee for all qualifying expenses, which also includes any attorneys fees paid to take legal action for enforcing the right to reimbursement of expenses. Further, under section 2804 any contract or agreement between an employer and an employee to waive rights to reimbursement is null and void. This means that any express or implied policy of an employer to attach conditions to eligibility for reimbursement of expenses is likely to be illegal and void.

If you have any questions about reimbursement of expenses, contact San Francisco employment lawyer Arkady Itkin at (415) 640-6765.