CA Supreme Court Ruling limits employers use of de minimis time
In an employee-friendly ruling, the California Supreme Court ruled against Starbucks’s use of “de minimis time” for the off-the-clock work of 4-10 minutes per work day employees spent after clocking out due to locking up and setting the alarm, etc.
The court found that over a 17-month period, at $8/hour, Troester (the plaintiff in the case) was owed $102.67. “That is enough to pay a utility bill, buy a week of groceries, or cover a month of bus fares. What Starbucks calls ‘de minimis; is not de minimis at all to many ordinary people who work for hourly wages.”
An employer that requires its employees to work minutes off the clock on a regular basis or as a regular feature of the job may not evade the obligation to compensate the employee for that time by invoking the de minimis doctrine. As the facts here demonstrate, a few extra minutes of work each day can add up.
The court left open whether there are wage claims involving employee activities that are so irregular or brief in duration that it would not be reasonable to require employers to compensate employees for the time spent on them.
So, what’s the bottom line? You need to ensure that employees are compensated for any pre- or post-clocking in or out time that might have been excluded from their timesheets. There should be a mechanism for the time keeping system to allow for a manual adjustment or an override to ensure that employees receive all wages due. Even if they are minimal in nature.