Some On-Call Sleep Time May Not Be Paid

A California Supreme Court ruling from January 2015 has shown that those who are required to sleep at their jobsite should be able to be to be paid for the hours they spend sleeping, but still on the job. The idea works like this.

Suppose a security guard is required to be on location, even if he is “off duty.” This guard might work for 16 hours patrolling and making sure everything is fine. He then can retreat to his trailer in order to take a break and sleep for 8 hours. But because he is on location, he has to be ready to respond to any alarms or calls, and he has to investigate while wearing his uniform. Even his presence in the trailer is enough to deter crime from happening. Because he never fully gets away from his job, the ruling declares that he should be paid for all of the hours he is working, even if he is asleep during those hours.

Now there are some exceptions to this rule. For instance, those who sleep at the job site, but have no reasonable expectation to perform work during their regularly scheduled sleep time. For instance, those working on marine ships must stay on the ship for 24 hours. But if they are provided adequate sleeping quarters, and there is no reason to expect that they can’t enjoy 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, then there is no reason they should be compensated for the hours they are spent sleeping.

Free Case Review: Sleep Time Pay Lawsuit

If you work a job where you are required to sleep at the job site, and you can never fully get away from your work, then you might be able to collect back pay for the hours you spent on the job but asleep. An attorney from wants to speak with you to determine if you can take part in a lawsuit to collect back pay. Schedule your free consultation by calling 1-800-917-4000, or fill out the contact form on this page.

A sleep pay attorney at Phillips Dayes can handle your case no matter where in California you live.