The Word is “de minimis“

[cda]

The "de minimis" worktime concept is a common-sense, court-recognized notion dating from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's earliest days. It has been articulated by the U.S. Labor Department this way:

In recording working time...,insubstantial or insignificant periods of time beyond the scheduled working hours, which cannot as a practical administrative matter be precisely recorded for payroll purposes, may be disregarded. * * * This rule applies only where there are uncertain and indefinite periods of time involved of a few seconds or minutes duration, and where the failure to count such time is due to considerations justified by industrial realities. An employer may not arbitrarily fail to count as hours worked any part, however small, of the employee's fixed or regular working time or practically ascertainable period of time he is regularly required to spend on duties assigned to him.


https://www.fisherphillips.com/Wage-and-Hour-Laws/The-Death-of-De-Minimis-Is-Greatly-Exaggerated

 

[conarb]

CDA:

I don't see the relevance fo that here but ironically the California Supreme Court just came down against "de minimus" yesterday:

SAN FRANCISCO — Starbucks and other employers in California must pay workers for minutes they routinely spend off the clock on tasks such as locking up or setting the store alarm, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Troester said he activated the store alarm, locked the front door and walked co-workers to their cars — tasks that required him to work for four to 10 additional minutes a day.

An attorney for Starbucks referred comment to the company. Starbucks did not immediately have comment.

A U.S. District Court rejected Troester’s lawsuit on the grounds that the time he spent on those tasks was minimal. But the California Supreme Court said a few extra minutes of work each day could “add up.”

Troester was seeking payment for 12 hours and 50 minutes of work over a 17-month period. At $8 an hour, that amounts to $102.67, the California Supreme Court said.

“That is enough to pay a utility bill, buy a week of groceries, or cover a month of bus fares,” Associate Justice Goodwin Liu wrote. “What Starbucks calls ‘de minimis’ is not de minimis at all to many ordinary people who work for hourly wages.”

The unanimous ruling was a big victory for hourly workers in California and could prompt additional lawsuits against employers in the state.

The ruling came in a lawsuit by a Starbucks employee, Douglas Troester, who argued that he was entitled to be paid for the time he spent closing the store after he had clocked out.¹

What we've always done by union policy is to make the carpenters get to work before 8:00 am and "roll out" to start work at 8:00 am, in return we give the carpenters time to stop work early enough to "roll up" and leave the site by 4:30 pm.


¹ https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/07/26/california-court-workers-must-be-paid-for-off-clock-tasks/

 

[ICE]

What a bunch of weenies. Everybody that I know who has a job spends plenty of free time at work. I lose an hour a day.

 

[RJJ]

As an employer! And how much time did he/she/ other spend on their iPhone surfing the web while on the clock?

 

[ICE]

CDA:

I don't see the relevance fo that here but ironically the California Supreme Court just came down against "de minimus" yesterday:



What we've always done by union policy is to make the carpenters get to work before 8:00 am and "roll out" to start work at 8:00 am, in return we give the carpenters time to stop work early enough to "roll up" and leave the site by 4:30 pm.


¹ https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/07/26/california-court-workers-must-be-paid-for-off-clock-tasks/

We never started at 8:00 am. Daybreak is more like it.

 

[tmurray]

As a manager, the way I always look at is if I as their supervisor asked them to do something I pay them for it. In the Starbucks example, once you stop paying an employee they are under no obligation to perform work related duties, so they could just walk out the door. Not set the alarm or lock it. If I'm not paying them to do that, how can I fire someone for not doing it?