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In the 2024 case, Huerta v. CSI Electrical Contractors Inc., the employer had a long process before employees could start their workday. As you may have guessed, the issue in this lawsuit was that employees did not get paid for their time spent waiting before they could clock in at their worksite.
The Case of Huerta v. CSI Electrical Contractors Inc.
The California Supreme Court found the waiting time was compensable as hours worked because the employer required specific and supervised tasks during the security checkpoint process. While the case interpreted Wage Order No. 16 (construction, drilling, logging, and mining industries) the Court’s decision will likely be applied to other industries.
CEA’s Reminder: Ensure non-exempt employees are not engaging in pre- and post-shift tasks that are off the clock. For example, only require them to go through security, gear up machines, don and doff protective gear, disable alarm systems, etc., after they have clocked in so that you are capturing that time and properly compensating employees. Create policies that require advance supervisor approval to work outside of scheduled shift times.