When employees are entitled to additional pay
Q: I AM a full-time employee at a company that pays us on a piece-rate basis for every task that we finish. For an eight-hour shift, we are told we are entitled to two paid 15-minute rest periods. What does this mean for a pieceworker like me?
A: A piece-rate worker or pieceworker is someone who is paid a fixed sum for each completed task, procedure or piece of work. Employers may legally pay employees on a piece-rate basis rather than on an hourly rate.
However, piece-rate workers must still be paid for all hours worked at no less than the minimum wage. If pieceworkers spend time doing other work-related activity, such as pick-up or clean-up activities, attending compulsory work meetings, travelling under employer’s control, or being required to wait, these are considered hours worked and must be paid.
California employers must also authorize hourly employees to take a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours worked or major fraction thereof. But what if employees are pieceworkers and not hourly? How then are they compensated? Unlike meal periods, which are not hours worked, rest periods are considered hours worked and must be paid. Thus, in a piece-rate system, rest breaks are separately compensated.
Consider the following case:
Kenneth Bluford is a truck driver employed by Safeway to deliver goods from Safeway’s distribution center to its stores in northern California and Nevada. Bluford sued Safeway on behalf of himself and his fellow drivers, alleging that the employer violated the law requiring it to provide its employees with paid rest periods.
Safeway’s compensation system required drivers be paid per miles driven, per piece for finished tasks, per hour for specific non-driving tasks and for delays. Safeway was required to provide two paid rest periods of 15 minutes each for every eight- or 10–hour shift worked, and an additional 15–minute paid rest period for overtime work exceeding two hours. Drivers manually logged their mileage and activities for each trip on trip sheets. They also logged their activities into an onboard computer system. Neither the trip sheets nor the computer system, however, provided a place or means to record meal or rest periods. The employees claimed that because of its compensation system, Safeway did not include rest periods as an item that would be reported by drivers and compensated.
Safeway claims that the law requires only that pay not be deducted for rest periods, and Safeway never deducted pay from its drivers for taking rest periods. Safeway argued that the law does not require employers, who use a piece-rate or incentive-based compensation system, to put employees on the clock just to pay for rest periods. Safeway claims that pay for rest periods is considered part of the overall piece-rate compensation and the mileage rates.
The Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the employees. The court said there is no dispute that Safeway’s compensation system did not separately pay drivers for their rest periods. Therefore, this system does not comply with California minimum wage law. Pay was calculated based on mileage, fixed rates for certain tasks, and hourly rates for other tasks and delays. There is no dispute that none of these rates were applied to rest periods. Even if Safeway’s mileage and fixed rates were designed to include payment for rest periods, the court says this is similar to averaging pay to comply with the minimum wage law – which is not allowed under California law.
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The Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. welcomes inquiries about this topic. All inquiries are confidential and at no-cost. Atty. Sayas’ Law Office is located at 500 N. Brand Blvd. Suite 980, Glendale, CA 91203. You can contact the office at (818) 291-0088 or visit www.joesayaslaw.com.
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C. Joe Sayas, Jr., Esq. is trial attorney who has obtained several million dollar recoveries for his clients against employers and insurance companies. He has been selected as a Super Lawyer by the Los Angeles Magazine, featured in the cover of Los Angeles Daily Journal’s Verdicts and Settlements, and is a member of the Million Dollar-Advocates Forum.
