On July 26, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Troester v. Starbucks Corporation, No. S234969 (July 26, 2018) holding that the de minimisdoctrine did not apply under either the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) de minimis doctrine or general principles of California law where an employee worked approximately 4-10 minutes off-the-clock per shift. Federal courts have applied the de minimisdoctrine in some circumstances to excuse the payment of wages for small amounts of otherwise compensable time upon a showing that the small amounts of time are administratively difficult to record.
The California Supreme Court departed from the rationale of several federal courts and held that the time the plaintiff spent working off-the-clock performing tasks such as locking the door, activating the alarm, and walking coworkers to their cars for security purposes was not administratively difficult to record and was not de minimis. More>>