Employment Law Blog

Filter:  Harris v. Sup. Ct.

Accurate Time Records for Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Employees

In cases where an employer failed to maintain accurate records of employees’ hours worked, evidence of the extent of employees’ working hours must be established primarily by testimonial evidence.  This is the established method of proof:
“[W]here the employer’s records are inaccurate or inadequate and the employee cannot offer convincing substitutes a . . . difficult problem arises.  The solution, however, is not to penalize the employee by denying him any recovery on the ground that he is unable to prove the precise extent of uncompensated work.  Such a result would place a premium on an employer’s failure to keep proper records in conformity with his statutory duty; it would allow the employer to keep the benefits of an employee’s labors without paying due compensation.  . . .  In such a situation we hold that an employee has carried out his burden if he proves that he has in fact performed work for which he was improperly compensated and if he produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference.  The burden then shifts to the employer to come forward with evidence of the precise amount of work performed or with evidence to negative the reasonableness of the inference to be drawn from the employee’s evidence.”
Hernandez v. Mendoza (1988), 199 Cal.App.3d 721, 727 (quoting Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. (1946) 328 U.S. 680, 687–688).

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Administrative Exemption from Overtime in California

“[U]nder California law, exemptions from statutory mandatory overtime provisions are narrowly construed. Moreover, the assertion of an exemption from the overtime laws is considered to be an affirmative defense, and therefore the employer bears the burden of proving the employee’s exemption.” Ramirez v. Yosemite Water Co. (1999) 20 Cal.4th 785, 794–795 (internal citations omitted). California Labor Code section 510(a) requires employers to pay overtime compensation—that is, to compensate its employees at a higher rate for hours worked over eight in a day or forty in a week. Lab. Code § 515(a) gives the Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”) the authority to establish exemptions from the overtime pay requirement. The IWC promulgated Wage Order No. 4, which relates to “professional” and “technical” employees. Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11040. The wage order establishes four exemptions from the overtime requirement: the (1) executive, (2) administrative, (3) professional, and (4) computer professional exemptions. Id. at subd. 1(A). Pursuant to the Wage Order, in order to be exempt, an employee must perform exempt duties more than fifty-percent of the time.

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Privacy Privilege in Discovery

Article I, section 1 of the California Constitution “creates a zone of privacy which protects against unwarranted compelled disclosure of certain private information.” Planned Parenthood Golden Gate v. Superior Court (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 347, 357. Pioneer Electronics (USA), Inc. v. Superior Court (2007) 40 Cal.4th 360, 370–371. In determining whether information falls within the zone of privacy, the party claiming the privacy privilege must have a reasonable expectation of privacy under the circumstances, including the customs, practices, and physical settings surrounding the circumstances. Hill v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (1994) 7 Cal.4th 1, 35–37.

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