The Sixth District California Court of Appeal held that despite evidence of neutrality of a rounding policy, the employer did not meet its burden of proof to show employees were properly compensated for all hours worked.

Home Depot used a time keeping system that rounded the employee’s total shift time to the nearest quarter-hour. While the system rounded, it also captured all time worked by employees to the minute.

Under the rounding practice, if the total shift time was recorded as six hours and three minutes, the time was rounded down to 6.00 hours. If the total shift time was six hours and eight minutes, the shift time was rounded up to 6.25 hours. Plaintiffs working for Home Depot in California filed a putative class action, alleging the practice resulted in failure to pay wages.

Home Depot moved for summary judgment on the ground that its practice of rounding time was neutral on its face, neutral as applied, and otherwise lawful under See’s Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court (2012) 210 Cal.App.4th 889.

In support of its motion, Home Depot presented evidence that showed that for 56.6 percent of the shifts reviewed, “employees were paid for the same or a greater number of minutes than their actual work time.” The employer also argued that employees lost minutes due to rounding on less than 44 percent of the shifts. Further, “for shifts that gained minutes due to rounding, the average gain was 3.6 minutes, and on shifts that lost minutes, the average loss was 3.5...

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