The California Court of Appeal issued a blow to employers this week by taking yet another step toward eliminating their ability to round employee time punches. Although the California Supreme Court will ultimately weigh in, you should review your practices now for compliance with evolving rules. Read on to find out what you need to know about Woodworth v. Loma Linda Univ. Med. Ctr. – and the three steps you should consider taking.
Neutral Rounding Practices Scrutinized
Nicole Woodworth was a registered nurse at Loma Linda University Medical Center. She filed a class and PAGA action against the medical center after her employment ended, alleging a host of wage and hour violations, including a claim for failure to pay overtime wages partially premised on the employer’s timecard rounding practice.
The employer in this case had a neutral rounding policy that rounded time punches to the nearest tenth of an hour. While 51.4% of employees were paid for more time than they were on the clock, 47.4% were paid for less, and the remaining 1.1% were unaffected. Thus, the medical center’s expert concluded that the policy was permissible because there was no systematic advantage to either the medical center or the employees based on the neutral timecard rounding practice.
But the court rejected this policy, pointing to another recent ruling, which held that when an employer “can capture and has captured the exact amount of time an employee has worked during a shift, the employer must...
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