Supreme Court Holds “On-Call” Time Compensable Even When Sleeping

The California Supreme court recently held in Mendiola, et al. v. CPS Security Solutions, et al., that security guards were entitled to be paid wages for all “on-call” hours spent at their assigned locations, including sleeping time, because they were under the control of their employer during the “on-call” time, and that the “on-call” time was spent for the benefit of the employer. The security guards were required to reside in a trailer on the worksite, and were not allowed to have visitors, children, alcohol, or pets. Further, the guards were required to inform their dispatcher if they needed to leave the worksite, and to wait for the arrival of a relief guard before leaving the premises. If no relief guard was available, then the on-call guard had to remain onsite and could not leave. The guard, when relieved, also had to be accessible by phone and able to return to the site within 30 minutes at any given time.