Tuesday, June 26, 2018
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Employers Permitted to Round Off Hours Worked
By a MetNews Staff Writer
An employer is permitted to use a payroll system which rounds off the hours worked by its employees to the nearest 15-minute increment, the court of appeal for this district ruled yesterday.
The opinion, written by Justice Nora M. Manella of Div. Four, grants a writ of mandate requested by the petitioners, AHMC Healthcare and two of its local area hospitals, one in the San Gabriel Valley and the other in Anaheim. The writ was requested by AHMC after Judge Elihu M. Berle of Los Angeles Superior Court denied motions from both parties for summary adjudication.
The case, a class action brought by Emilio Letona and Jacquelyn Abeyta under California’s wage and hour and unfair business practice laws, concerns AHMC’s use of a payroll system that does not accurately calculate the hours worked by AHMC employees. Rather, the system rounds the time worked to the nearest quarter hour.
The facts of the case were not in dispute. Berle rejected both motions, however, because he concluded that the evidence presented indicated that the rounding consistently favored the employer and thus raised triable issues of fact.
Manella disagreed. She concluded:
“Because the petitioners’ employees benefited overall from the rounding policy, the fact that a bare majority lost a minimal amount of time was not sufficient to create a triable issue of a fact. Petitioners’ motion for summary adjudication should have been granted.”
The case is AHMC Healthcare, Inc. v. Superior Court, 2018 S.O.S. 3211.
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