Evidence wins out in nurse's claims for unpaid wages

A fact-intensive inquiry into a California wage and hour case resulted in a win for employers with compliant meal and rest break policies and facially neutral time-rounding policies.

The California Court of Appeal shut down the employee's attempt to create a factual dispute by submitting testimony contradicting her prior sworn statements and held that employers that maintain legally compliant meal and rest break policies aren't obligated to police their employees to ensure no work is done on those breaks. Further, the court held that facially neutral time-rounding policies don't violate the law unless they inherently benefit either the employer or employee.

RN alleges violations of wage rules

Joana David worked as a registered nurse (RN) for Queen of the Valley Medical Center (QVMC) for 10 years. During part of that time, she and other QVMC employees used an electric time-keeping system to clock in and out of work. The system automatically rounded time entries up or down to the nearest quarter hour.

After her employment ended, David filed a complaint against QVMC alleging she wasn't paid for hours worked off the clock, including when she performed "charting" work and when her meal and rest breaks were interrupted by coworkers asking her work-related questions. She also claimed she wasn't paid all wages due because of the hospital's time-rounding policy.

Contradictory testimony can't create dispute