Los Angeles, CAJust because an employer does not specifically ask employees to work off the clock does not mean that the employer is not violating California labor laws. If the employer knows that work is being done off the clock, then the employer should be paying for those hours worked, even if that means paying overtime.
Dannie S. worked for a large, well-known pet store chain for a year and a half, until approximately 4 weeks ago when he was fired. At the time, Dannie was told he was fired for talking back to a customer at the front of the store??"something Dannie says there was no policy against when he was fired. In fact, Dannie says that the company has enacted many new policies since he was fired, including a policy against working off the clock.
"All the time that they [the pet store chain] were violating the labor laws, I knew they were doing it but because I wanted to keep my job, I never said anything," Dannie says. "I have to be honest about that right away. I knew it was going on.
"The thing is, they [the company] have an expectation of a certain amount of money each store [in the chain] has to make. But, they don't want anyone to get overtime. But in order to make the kind of money that they want you to make, you have no choice but to work overtime. I would come in way before I had to be at work, up to 2 to 3 hours early. I would clock out for lunch, but work through that lunch hour, then clock back in. Then, I would clock out before the day was over and work for another 2 to 3 hours. In the year and a half I was there, I actually took my lunch maybe 12 times??"and for those times I was still eating my sandwich while I was working.
"They [management] knew I was doing this. There was pressure from the district manager to make money. It wasn't the store manager's fault really, although she knew I was doing this. She probably should have intervened and told me not to work off the clock, but she worked off the clock, too.
"The other thing they would do was they would go into the files and edit your times for you. I know they have my signature on a couple of edited times, but I didn't sign all of them. Again, I didn't say anything because I wanted to keep my job.
"I know that they know they are wrong. I was the grooming manager and I got along well with my employees??"we are still in touch. My employees called to tell me that since I was fired, everyone is required to take their lunch breaks and leave the premises during lunch. They also now have a policy against talking back to customers at the front of the store [Dannie says he was fired for refusing to groom an elderly, sick cat, which was consistent with company policy, and then, after the customer became verbally abusive, telling the customer to leave the store or the police would take care of her]. That's now grounds for automatic termination, but I never saw a policy like that when I was there.
"No one ever told me not to work off the clock and everybody knew I was doing it. We all knew we had to do whatever we could because there was so much pressure from the district manager to make our sales goals. We had no choice but to work off the clock. Normally, a dog groomer sees about 5 or 6 dogs a day. I would do 12 to 13 dogs a day??"that's double the amount a normal groomer does. I did it because I took no breaks and I worked off the clock. By not saying anything about it, I've been encouraging it."
Some employers argue that employees make their own decision to work off the clock and they cannot be held responsible if the employee makes that decision. However, those companies have no problems benefiting from employees who work off the clock (for example, in profits from increased sales) so they should either properly compensate employees for overtime hours or prohibit employees from working off the clock. These are the only ways to ensure that employees are not taken advantage of.