Off-the-Clock Work Attorney

Under both California and federal law, all time an employer "suffers or permits" you to work is compensable. This includes pre-shift and post-shift activities integral to your job, mandatory training, travel time between job sites during the workday, security screenings (under California's Frlekin v. Apple), and time spent on-call under certain conditions.

Yes, if your employer requires or expects you to monitor and respond to communications outside work hours, that time is compensable. Under the FLSA and California law, de minimis tasks may be excluded only if they are truly negligible. Regular email checking, even for short periods, accumulates and must be paid. Track the time you spend on after-hours work communications.

No. If the employer knew or should have known you were working, the time must be paid regardless of whether you clocked in. Under the FLSA and California law, the employer has a duty to track and pay for all hours it "suffers or permits" to be worked. An employer cannot benefit from off-the-clock work while claiming ignorance.

You can use personal records, notes, calendars, text messages, emails, GPS data, security badge records, coworker testimony, and any other evidence showing when you actually worked. In California, when an employer fails to maintain accurate time records, the burden shifts to the employer to disprove the employee's reasonable estimate of hours worked (Hernandez v. Mendoza).