Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 26

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    1

    Default What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: California

    I own a construction company and want to know the law on employees being ready for work at their start time. If they work with a cart and tools that need to be unloaded from their vehicle, does this happen on company time or is this something they need to have ready at their designated start time? They work at different job sites most days and can't leave tools overnight.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    118

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    Quote Quoting Bryan1
    View Post
    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: California

    I own a construction company and want to know the law on employees being ready for work at their start time. If they work with a cart and tools that need to be unloaded from their vehicle, does this happen on company time or is this something they need to have ready at their designated start time? They work at different job sites most days and can't leave tools overnight.
    What is your company name, "Nitpick, Inc."?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Somewhere near Canada
    Posts
    35,894

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    Quote Quoting Bryan1
    View Post
    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: California

    I own a construction company and want to know the law on employees being ready for work at their start time. If they work with a cart and tools that need to be unloaded from their vehicle, does this happen on company time or is this something they need to have ready at their designated start time? They work at different job sites most days and can't leave tools overnight.

    If you're going to pay them for the extra time needed to be "ready", that's legal and fair.

    Otherwise it comes out of company time.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    If they are working (be it getting the tools out of the crib or putting them away) and are not exempt, they must be paid.
    It's a frequently abused rule but it only takes one disgruntled employee to file an official complaint to make your life miserable.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    they are not getting tools from a tool crib. They are bringing in their tools from their vehicles. If they are personal tools, it is personal time. If it is company tools, it is company time.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Posts
    833

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    Quote Quoting jk
    View Post
    they are not getting tools from a tool crib. They are bringing in their tools from their vehicles. If they are personal tools, it is personal time. If it is company tools, it is company time.
    It is a far more complex question. See:
    http://www.shrm.org/legalissues/fede...fety-gear.aspx
    http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x...ffing+Policies
    many others. One key is if the gear/clothing/tools are "integral" and "indispensable" to the employee's principal work activities. While focused on police officers, a good summary of California law on donning and doffing is at: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs...ticle61108.pdf

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    Donning and doffing cases don't analogize well to cases involving gathering equipment to use on a construction job.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    Quote Quoting Bryan1
    View Post
    I own a construction company and want to know the law on employees being ready for work at their start time. If they work with a cart and tools that need to be unloaded from their vehicle, does this happen on company time or is this something they need to have ready at their designated start time?
    I'm going to take a slightly different tack than some of the prior posts, and infer that these are your tools and your carts, and that you have ordered your employees not to leave tools at work sites, and also that they must load the carts into their vehicles (personal or employer-provided) at the start of each shift, and unload the tools at the end of each shift.

    My first question is, in the aggregate, how much time do the employees have to spend loading and unloading the vehicles? If it's less than ten minutes in the aggregate, and no significant effort is involved, there's some authority that the acts of loading and unloading could be treated as de minimis, and thus not as compensable. See, e.g., Lindow v. United States, 738 F.2d 1057, 1061-62 (9th Cir. 1984). But note also that the rule is limited, "[t]he de minimis rule is concerned with the practical administrative difficulty of recording small amounts of time for payroll purposes." So, if you were to make that argument, you would not only have to demonstrate that the amount of time and effort is minimal, but that it would be difficult to track the employees' time spend on the loading and unloading activity. The court may also distinguish a situation where employees are required to make this extra effort every day, versus when it's occasional. ("[I]n determining whether otherwise compensable time is de minimis, we will consider (1) the practical administrative difficulty of recording the additional time; (2) the aggregate amount of compensable time; and (3) the regularity of the additional work.")

    That is a Ninth Circuit case (the circuit that includes California), but was applied recently in a Maryland case involving the loading and unloading of equipment, Ross v. Wolf Fire Prot., Inc., 799 F. Supp. 2d 518, 527 (D. Md. 2011), a trial court ruling on a summary disposition motion. In that case, which involved the loading and unloading of equipment for sprinkler installation, the trial court found that "It is genuinely disputed whether Fire Protection required the plaintiffs to load and unload equipment, and whether the loading and unloading was 'integral' to their 'principal activity' requiring compensation under the FLSA." In other words, due to a disagreement between the parties as to the facts of the case, the trial court found that those issues needed to be resolved at trial.

    The same principal was also applied in a Virginia case, where workers had to load and unload their tools at the start and end of shifts. Epps v. Arise Scaffolding & Equipment, Inc., 17 Wage & Hour Cas. 2d (BNA) 1149 (E.D. Va. Apr. 22, 2011) The Virginia court held that the time and effort expended by the employees was not de minimis.
    Waco's strongest argument against liability for the Erectors is that these activities — loading tools, receiving crew assignments, and loading incidental material — even if otherwise compensable, were de minimis and therefore preliminary and postliminary rather than integral and indispensable to their principal activity. Again, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, this is not correct....

    Here, it was not particularly difficult to record the designated arrival times for employees. The other work they performed prior to departure occurred on a regular basis. This work involved a variety of required activities which, while independently of short duration, may in the aggregate exceed the de minimis threshold. In addition, testimony from some plaintiffs establishes that material loading itself sometimes exceeded twenty minutes. (Jackson Dep., ECF No. 124-8, p. 13). Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, they have presented sufficient facts to survive defendant's motion for partial summary judgment.
    These cases serve to highlight that the doctrine set forth in Ross continues to have application, and also how fact-dependent the employer's duties can be.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    284

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    Good answer. I am going to respond to the police officer's uniforms question only. That is an important issue because there are a lot of decisions coming down both ways. If we are talking about the uniform only, then courts generally consider donning/duffing to be not hours worked. But if we are talking body armor and the utility belt and other stuff, then most court decisions consider donning/duffing to be hours worked, for reasons already mentioned in this post. What tends to be looked at is the total time spent donning/duffing, plus is the "clothing" not just clothing, is there a safety factor or something integral to the job involved? There was a really important decision regarding people working at chicken processing that was decided by SCOTUS that tends to lay out the factors looked at with donning/duffing cases.

    I am not sure that clothing related decisions are more then loosely related to OP's specific issue.

    This is an interesting thread. Good discussion.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: What Can an Employer Require You to Do Before Your Start Time

    I'm not seeing how either case is applicable to the case at hand. Both cases cited involved being required to report to a site other than the actual worksite where they were required to load company materials, tools, or equipment after which they then travelled to an actual jobsite.

    Travel is is not an issue in the case at hand and unless the op clarifies the tools, material, or equipment involved is company property (and I already stated that if it is company property my position is directly opposite that if it is personal property involved), I do not see the cases cited as adding anything to the case at hand either.

    1. Sponsored Links
       

Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Expenses and Reimbursement: Can My Employer Require Me to Pay for My Uniform
    By crt? in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 03-21-2014, 07:35 AM
  2. Medical Issues: Can Your Employer Require You to Use Vacation Time for FMLA
    By Saywhat?! in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 31
    Last Post: 02-16-2014, 09:26 AM
  3. Medical Issues: Can Your Employer Require You to Use Vacation Time if You Want Unpaid Leave
    By halo16 in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 01-22-2014, 08:05 PM
  4. Resignation: Can Your Employer Require a Letter of Resignation
    By tigersquash in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 09-13-2013, 06:19 PM
  5. Medical Issues: When Can an Employer Require a Doctor Visit
    By allergyhelp in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 03-13-2012, 10:30 AM
 
 
Sponsored Links

Legal Help, Information and Resources