Bloomberg Law published an article on July 22, 2021 about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling that Amazon must pay workers for time they spend waiting in security lines. The article discusses some recent trends and litigation in California regarding employees’ right to be compensated for short time periods, known as “de minimis” time. This could include time that employees spend in pandemic-related health screening, and time employees spend texting or emailing on their smartphones while off the clock. Lauren Teukolsky is quoted in the article discussing the Troester ruling, which eliminated the de minimis exception.

The article states: “In California, the Troester ruling that eliminated the de minimis exception has sparked worker lawsuits based on allegations of doing short tasks after hours, such as responding to emails and texts, said Lauren Teukolsky, an attorney at Teukolsky Law PC who represents workers.”

If you believe you have not been compensated properly at work, contact Teukolsky Law today for a free consultation.

On July 16, Lauren Teukolsky spoke on a panel about emerging trends in wage & hour law. The panel was part of the California Lawyers Association (CLA, formerly State Bar) Labor & Employment Section’s 2021 Annual Conference.  Ms. Teukolsky was joined by co-panelist Aaron Cole, a Shareholder at Ogletree Deakins in Los Angeles, who provided the defense bar's perspective. The panel was moderated by Hina Shah, a Professor of Law and Director of the Women’s Employment Rights Clinic at Golden Gate University. The panel covered numerous emergent trends in wage & hour cases, including an upswing in reimbursement cases; employers requiring employees to use their cell phones for work without providing a phone stipend; and failure to compensate employees for emailing and texting while off the clock. Ms. Teukolsky and Mr. Cole also discussed several issues related to COVID, such as whether employers need to pay employees for undergoing work-related COVID screening; unsafe working environments; and cases stemming from employers’ failure to pay out vacation time when mass layoffs occurred.

Ms. Teukolsky is a frequent speaker at conferences on topics of employment law and litigation.  She has an upcoming in-person speaking engagement in Las Vegas in September 2021 for the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) Annual Conference on opposing motions to compel arbitration.