Huerta Explains When Employer-Controlled Time Must Be Paid in California

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California wage law does not look only at when an employee performs the core job. Time spent under an employer’s control may also be compensable. In Huerta v. CSI Electrical Contractors, 15 Cal.5th 908 (2024), the California Supreme Court answered three questions involving a remote construction site governed by Wage Order No. 16.

Mandatory Exit Inspections

Workers waited in personal vehicles to scan badges and undergo visual vehicle inspections before leaving the site. The Court held that time awaiting and completing the employer-mandated exit procedure was compensable “hours worked.” The employees remained confined to the premises, and the procedure served the employer’s interests.

Travel From a Required Entry Point

The Court separately addressed travel between the security gate and parking lots. That time may qualify as employer-mandated travel if the gate was the first location where the employee’s presence was required for an employment-related reason beyond the practical need to access the site.

Ordinary workplace rules during a drive in a personal vehicle, standing alone, did not create enough employer control to make the travel “hours worked.” The distinction depends on why presence at the first location was required and which wage-order provision applies.

Restricted Meal Periods

The workers’ collective bargaining agreement designated an unpaid meal period, but the employer prohibited them from leaving the site. The Court held that the period is compensable when that restriction prevents employees from engaging in otherwise feasible personal activities. A qualifying collective bargaining agreement does not waive the right to minimum wages for time that remains “hours worked.”

The Decision’s Scope

Huerta interpreted Wage Order No. 16, which covers specified construction, drilling, logging, and mining occupations. Other workplaces may be governed by different wage orders, although California’s control analysis remains important. Whether time is compensable depends on concrete facts, not labels alone.

Schedules, badge records, security procedures, travel instructions, meal-period restrictions, and timekeeping policies may help establish what actually occurred.

Key Takeaways

• Mandatory exit inspections can be compensable controlled time.
• Travel may be compensable when presence at the starting point is employment-required.
• A nominally unpaid meal period may still be hours worked.
• The governing wage order and workplace facts must be analyzed together.