Second Appellate District Court

In a recent decision involving retail store employees, the Second Appellate District Court held that employees subject to on-call scheduling must be paid reporting time pay, even when the employee only has to make a short call to determine if they are needed, but does not physically report to work.

The case, Skylar Ward v. Tilly’s Inc., Case Number B280151, involved a putative class action complaint filed by Plaintiff Skylar Ward (Plaintiff), a former sales clerk in a Tilly’s store. In the complaint, Plaintiff alleged that Wage Order 7 mandated that nonexempt retail employees be paid “reporting time pay” if either “an employee is required to report for work and does report, but is not put to work or is furnished less than half said employee’s usual or scheduled day’s work” or “an employee is required to report to work a second time in any one workday and is furnished less than two (2) hours of work on the second reporting.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11070, subd. (5).) Specifically, Plaintiff contended that Tilly’s scheduling policy required employees to call in while on-call, disciplined employees for late or missed call-ins, and made call-in and reporting mandatory. Thus, Plaintiff alleged that when on-call employees contact Tilly’s two hours before on-call shifts they are reporting for work within the meaning of the wage order, and thus are owed reporting time pay.

The trial court sustained the demurrer by defendant Tilly’s on the grounds that Plaintiff is not entitled to reporting time pay under the Wage Order because: (1) the phrase “report to work” means that an employee physically appears at the workplace, and; (2) that merely calling in to learn whether an employee will work a call-in shift does not trigger reporting time pay under Wage Order 7. Continue Reading California on call shifts may qualify for paid reporting time pay