The California Supreme Court recently held in Mendiola v CPS Security Solutions (2015) that certain security guards are entitled to on call pay for on-call hours including their sleep time. In that case, the claimants were security guards who worked at constructions sites. The resided in a trailer provided by their employer. On weekdays, each guard patrolled the designation construction site for eight hours. On weekends, each guard was on patrol for sixteen hours and on call for eight hours. A guard was not allowed to leave the work site unless the relief guard was available. Even when relieved, the guard had to be available on the phone and had to be able to return to site if necessary within 30 minutes. The guards were not paid for on call time unless they actually responded to alarms or investigated an incident. Also, when the guards were on duty for 24 hours, the employer deducted 8 hours from their pay as “sleep time.
The Court determined that those on-call hours constituted compensable hours worked, and that the employer could not exclude “sleep time” from plaintiff’s 24-hour shifts. On-call and stand-by time requires compensation under certain circumstances, depending on the extent of an employer’s control over employees during that time. The court reviewed the factors that determine whether an employee is entitled to be paid for on-call and stand-by time and concluded that these guards should have in fact been paid.
This decision affects those many security guards in Sacramento who work at various constructions sites, schools, colleges, hospitals and other facilities that have significant 24/7 security staff.
If you believe that you might be entitled to be paid for your on-call or stand-by hours, you should first run your work situation by the California on-call pay factors by yourself or with the help of an attorney and then consider your legal options accordingly.