Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Unfortunately this is a common problem for employers and even more unfortunately wage and hour law really boxes you in. You are allowed to take adverse job action for failure to keep proper time records, such as cutting back their hours or just plain firing them, but you must pay them on your regular schedule even if they fail to turn in time cards. If you don't have actual time you must make a good faith estimate and pay that, and then adjust when you get the time card. For starters, if there is any way to make it easier for your employees to submit their time, do it. You can also try to motivate. Do you have foremen? Make it their job to collect daily or weekly cards. If they fail, demote them and give another worker the foreman job. Or put out a series of warnings, one with each pay period that failure to submit on time may lead to cut hours or termination. If they don't get the message, hire one new guy, fire your worse offender, and make sure everyone knows why. Maybe you can think of other ideas, but the only thing you can't do is dock or withhold pay. That just makes you the bad-guy with the labor commission.