Is driving part of your job? You may be entitled to back wages!

Q: AS a mobile technician, I travel to patients to obtain laboratory specimens. I drive the company vehicle, which I garage at my home, to do my job. I cannot use the vehicle to run personal errands while working. I cannot even use it to drop off my child at school. My employer pays me per patient. I do a lot of driving to patient locations and usually work more than 8 hours per day. Am I entitled to additional wages? What are my rights in this situation?
A: Even though you are paid per patient, you may be entitled to additional pay for the time you spend driving to your employer’s clients’ locations throughout the day.
Generally, an employee’s commuting time between home and work is not considered hours worked. This rule applies whether the employee works in one location or at different job sites. However, travel during the work day related to the employer’s business, or done at the employer’s instructions, is considered hours worked and, therefore, must be paid.
Additionally, California law requires that employees be compensated for all time during which an employee is subject to the control of the employer. If, during the travel time, the employee is really “subject to the control of the employer” then the employee must be paid for this time.
These very issues embroiled well-known tools company, Black & Decker, in a lawsuit, when it was sued by its field technicians who worked in the field doing construction, service, repair, technical and/or maintenance work. The employees alleged that they were required to drive small company trucks to assigned work locations from home and return to home from those locations. While driving the company trucks, they were required to wear company uniforms, prohibited from taking passengers, prohibited from running personal errands, prohibited from hauling personal non-work related gear, required to proceed directly from home to work and back without making unauthorized detours or stops, and required to monitor their work cell phone by keeping it on and answering calls from the employer.
However, the company then instructed them to deduct the first and last 30 minutes from their time sheets as unpaid time.  The employees argued that all the time they spent driving to and from work being under the control of their employer is considered “work hours” and should be paid. Rather than proceed to trial, the employer decided to settle the case and pay the amount of $4,970,000 to two subclasses of employees:  About $2.4 million will go to the field workers class for unpaid wages  (with an average payout of $7,965) and about $1,025,000 will go to employees who received defective paystubs from the employer (average payout is $1,280).
It is common for service technicians and other field workers to drive company vehicles to the customer’s home or place of business to service or install a product. For such employees, the employer may have imposed certain requirements and restrictions on them from the time they leave home up until the time they return home. If so, these field employees may be entitled to additional wages, such as the following:
1) wages for the drive time
2) overtime wages if the work plus drive time exceed 8 hours
3) minimum wage penalties
4) premium wages for meal periods that were not provided
5) premium wages for rest periods that were not provided
6) penalties for the delay in paying any type of wages
7) penalties for pay stubs that did not correct information regarding the employee’s wages
Whether travel time should be paid to employees may at times be a confusing issue. Employees who spend a significant part of their time driving at work can benefit from consulting with a knowledgeable employment attorney.

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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.