About working on days off10

There needs to be a [California] law regarding businesses asking their loyal employees to work on their [scheduled] days off.  Is there one?  I am fine with work that specifically says "you may be required to work on some Saturdays or night shifts" as they already state specifically that so it's expected.  What I'm not in agreement with is when they tell you that you will be working a part-time or full-time shift, tell you that you won't be come into work on these days (e.g, rotating shifts), and then call you on your day off asking you to come in for work; which you probably will most likely do because the economy is far from getting any better, California unemployment is at about 12.4%, and you really want to look good on that performance review.  And I suppose the reason to my disagreement is because the position does not in any place say it is on-call.  So why should I expect myself to be an on-call employee?

Now it's not too bad some may say.  Oh you're getting more hours that's a good thing.  But it's not a good thing when you as the individual have worked 40 hours for the week already, get called and asked to work on your day off, do over-time and get paid for that, and then only to come the following week in disappointment.  See, most of us would expect that if we're called in to be asked to work on a day off, we'd expect to maybe get the following day off instead or maybe a day off a few days later.  That'd be the most reasonable thing right?   For example:

• You work Sunday and you got Monday off.  You work Tuesday thru Friday.
• You get Saturday off, but they call you, ask you to come in for work, and you do.  
• You expect that you will get Sunday off because you came in on Saturday.
• Next week's schedule gets updated at the end of Saturday and you discover your next day off is on Thursday.
• So technically they worked you for 9 straight days.

Now in a typical normal job, there are 5 business days in the week and there are 7 days in that week.  No business should have to work their employees for more than 5 straight business days unless the job description specifically says so before hire.  And no.  Flexible hours does not mean employers can work their employees for more than 5 straight business days.

I know there are some professions out there that have their employees work 10 straight days but that is stated specifically on the job posting, application, and during the interview!  So please...... employers!  Don't run your employees like you do a sweatshop.  If you need additional man power, hire more people!  One person working $17 / hour and doing 50 hours a week is the same as two persons each making $17 / hour and doing 25 hours a week.