Posted on October 8th, 2018
Have you heard about the California ruling on “off-clock tasks” but don’t know the specifics? Here’s everything you need to know about this latest California burden on employers.
In late July 2018, California’s Supreme Court made a decision that again went even more strict than Federal law standards and will likely result in even more wage-and-hour claims against employers and open us up to even more liability for class action lawsuits.
Until recently, as employers we were not obligated to compensate workers for trivial tasks they completed before or after they had clocked out. This meant the staff members who opened and closed may have spent time at their place of employment they weren’t getting paid for.
But, after a recent lawsuit by a Starbucks employee, that all changed.
Now, as a business owner in California you need to be even more vigilant to make sure you aren’t violating any overtime or wage-and-hour laws, or else it could cost you dearly in court.
But, the first step in complying with the court’s decision is understanding it.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about paying your employees for their off-clock work.
What Exactly Happened?
It all started with Douglas Troester, a man who worked at one of the countless Starbucks stores scattered across California. After realizing that he worked anywhere from five to ten extra minutes each day while closing the store, he wanted compensation.
His stance is while this may seem like a negligible amount of time, an extra ten minutes per day can result in nearly four hours of unpaid work per month. Over time, this could end up being a week’s worth of groceries, an oil change, or a utility bill for some people.
Thus, the California Supreme Court ruled during Douglas Troester v. Starbucks Corp that this was no longer allowed and that all the time employees spend at your establishment working, even in opening or closing, must be compensated.
Now, employees all over the state are coming for their share.
What Does It Mean?
The ruling has left many business owners in our state worried and with good reason.
Employees who are required to complete non-trivial off-clock work may see this ruling as yet another opportunity to sue their employers.
As you can guess, this could be catastrophic for California business owners for two reasons:
- Employers may be required to pay employees for as much off-clock work as the employee can prove they completed
- The courts will become congested with such a large volume of cases, causing the business owner to wait months for a decision.
This ruling adds yet another labor law concern to the long list that employers have to worry about.
We already have so many to contend with including wrongful termination guidelines, calculating work hours/travel time, and meal/rest break compliance.
In short, things are likely to get even uglier for California entrepreneurs in the near future.
What’s Going to Happen?
More Lawsuits
There are going to be more lawsuits, simply due to the fact that California has an extremely large volume of hourly wage workers. It will be unsurprising that a large number of employees who complete trivial work off the clock are going to demand compensation.
While this will cause the previously mentioned difficulties for some entrepreneurs, further lawsuits will also cause the court’s ruling to further develop due to how murky the details currently are.
For example, the court hasn’t defined how much unpaid off-clock work there needs to be before a case would hold up in court.
There’s a difference between a 6-month employee who’s owed three hours’ worth of pay and a multi-year worker who is owed hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Further cases will also force courts to define what “trivial” tasks are. Currently, there is no line drawn between flipping light switches and something like arming a security system.
Employee Vigilance
This term works in two separate ways.
Employers will be more watchful of their employees and the type of work they are completing (if any) while clocked out. Employees will also take extra care to track every second they spend working off the clock and what type of work they are doing.
Employees will also be far more critical of employers who “round” their workers’ labor hours up or down to the nearest whole. Rounding is a very common tactic now but as time goes on, it will most likely become less acceptable to do this in the state of California.
Business owners will have to take extra care in order to prevent themselves from getting into legal trouble over unpaid wages.
What Can I Do to Protect Myself?
For business owners who are serious about staying out of a courtroom, the first step would be to hire an employer attorney to help you understand everything you need to know about this latest California court ruling.
It would also be a good idea to have this legal professional help you update or revamp your policies and procedures so that your company standards and compliance are completely transparent. This will allow you to clearly define that you are requiring your employees to do their tasks on the clock, and not in violation of state laws.
Furthermore, an employer attorney can also help you with terminating problem employees properly so they don’t come back and sue you later for these types of issues.
California’s ‘Off-Clock’ Ruling Isn’t The End of The World
Sure, it’s not a welcome addition to the already huge list of worries for business owners in California but all it will take is more vigilance in order to stay compliant.
What the ruling means for you depends on how you choose to run your business. But, you should take steps to ensure that you’re fully protected in the future.
Not sure where to start? We offer employer services that can help keep you on the right side of the law.
To learn more about what we can do for you, please visit our services page.
