A recent case, Troester v Starbucks, received a ruling from the California Supreme Court that could bring on a significant wave of change for businesses and hourly workers across the nation.
In the lawsuit, Douglas Troester, a Starbucks employee, sued the café chain for refusing to compensate the five to ten minutes of time he spent locking up the store each night off-the-clock. These few minutes of unpaid time, known as “de minimis” in court, added up to a total of $102.67 and while most courts don’t handle cases of such small proportions, the California Supreme Court did and decided in favor of Troester.
“That is enough to pay a utility bill, buy a week of groceries, or cover a month of bus fares,” Associate Justice Goodwin Liu commented. “What Starbucks calls ‘de minimis’ is not de minimis at all to many ordinary people who work for hourly wages.”
What This Means
So, why is this case now such a big deal for businesses?
Though historically California has consistently maintained one of the highest wage protection laws in the country, de minimis payments have always been a tricky subject in court and are usually ignored as off-the-clock working time is either too hard to track, or too irregular to pursue in a legal case.
Until now.
With Troester’s win of the case, the California Supreme Court has effectively stated that businesses no longer have an excuse and that all time spent working, no matter how small, must be compensated. As such, businesses should be prepared for a wave of similar lawsuits to sweep the state.
The question now is whether your business will be counted as one of them, or will you take the steps to protect yourself and your employees in the changing work environment?
How to Prepare
In this case, technology and simple analysis are your friend.
Before enacting any changes, an employer should take a careful look at the regular procedures of each of their employees after they clock out. Do they take a few extra minutes to lock up, or to help prep the start of their replacement’s shift? If so, time how long those duties usually take and then automatically add them to your employees’ paychecks.
Are there any additional tasks or time spent working that isn’t as easy to track? Consider investing in alternative forms of clocking out or technology that can help account for de minimis time, depending on your industry.
After all, time spent working – no matter how short – is time that must be compensated for, as every minute can add up to make a big difference for an hourly worker.
Image courtesy of Canva.com
