Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Work Assignments

I can't for the life of me imagine any reason why it would be illegal.

If you have a contract specifying your responsibilities, work hours and days off, the change would be a breach of contract. However, most employees don't have contracts at all, much less contracts that guarantee those things.

Forty years ago, one Friday afternoon in early July, my boss at the railroad where I had a cushy desk job in San Francisco informed me that as of 8 a.m. next Monday I was the seasonal acting assistant trainmaster at Gila Bend, Arizona, where I would be getting further railroading experience hustling trains over the line between Yuma and Tucson in 110 degree heat from dawn to dusk. I wasn't happy, but that was the way of life for a young operating-department officer at Espee. Yup, they could do it to me, and they can do it to you.