Compensation for Travel Time

The recent case of Overton v. Disney (No. B179854, CA Court of Appeals) deals with the issue of whether an employee should be compensated for his or her time travelling to and from work.

Bobby Overton, an employee of Disney, claimed that Disney should compensate its employees for the time taken to travel on the shuttle from the parking lot to the main entrance of Disneyland (where the employees would punch in).
Overton contended that because employees were required to take the shuttle by Disney, they should be compensated for their time travelling on the shuttle.

The Law

Employees must be compensated for their "hours worked". "Hours worked" is the time when an employee is subject to the control of the employer and includes all time the employee is "suffered or permitted to work".

Court's Analysis

Here, the issue was whether Overton and the other Disney employees were subject to the control of Disney while they were taking the shuttle to work. In other words, were the employees required by Disney to take the shuttle?
The Court observed that while 90% of Disney employees did drive to work and take the shuttle, they were by no means forced to take the shuttle. In fact, 10% of Disney employees took vanpools, were driven by friends or family, arrived in buses or trains, or came by some other means of transportation.
Unlike the case of Morillion v. Royal Packing Co., in which farmworkers were forced to meet in the parking lot and take the shuttle to the fields in which they worked, the Disney employees in Overton were not forced by Disney to take the shuttle to work.

Conclusion

If your employer is forcing you to travel to work in employer-controlled transportation and not compensating you for that time, please call our office for a consultation.

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