Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Re: My rights as a vacation property manager

State and fed law require that an employer pay for hours worked. Thus this issue requires you to determine whether the employee is "engaged to be waiting" (Standby Time), or "waiting to be engaged" (On Call). The differencfe is substantial. If an employee is restricted to the extent that he or she can't engage in personal activities while waiting to be called, then he/she is engaged to to be waiting, and must be paid for all hour so engaged. If on the other hand the employee can go out to dinner, to a movie, the store, or other personal pursuits, subject to reporting back to the work site within a determined period of time, (i.e. within 20 min of being called or paged), then the employee is waiting to be engaged, is not working, and need not be paid.

In a situation where an employee is required to remain at the employer's premises, must answer the phone, door, or be available immediatlty when called, usually is considered to be working. Sleeping time may even be included if there are significant interuptions, it may be considered working time.

You must be paid for all hours you actually perform services. Therefore, an accurate record of all "call backs", including the time of the call, the report time, and the end of the work time will allow you to accurately claim the wages due you.