Douglas Troester, a
supervisor at a Starbucks in Burbank, filed a lawsuit because the checklist for
closing the store required him to clock out so he could upload data about
employees’ hours, sales, and other information before leaving work, which he
said required a few minutes of off-the-clock work. Starbucks changed its system
so that punching out initiated the information upload.
Short amounts of work time
can add up. One uncompensated minute for an employee who earns minimum wage
could cost a business up to $2,520 in penalties, the California Retailers
Association said in a brief to the state high court. The group argued in favor
of applying the federal minimal time rule, which doesn’t require pay for
certain kinds of small, or “de minimis,” amounts of off-the-clock work.
What if you’re not in California?
Interesting, the federal
wage-and-hour law permits employers not to pay for up to seven minutes of
after-work work—but there is a catch. If that work—it’s called postliminary—
closely relates to an employee’s actual work, then the time is compensable.
In my judgment, Starbucks owes Troester
under federal law, too. The work he did was not “incidental.” It was clearly in
the scope of his duties.
Backdrop: Today, the Commerce
Department announced that the economy grew at 4.1% this past quarter. That’s
great! But wages are barely rising. Come on, Starbucks and others— stop
cheating workers like you did to Mr. Troester.
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