California Security Guards’ On-Call Break Periods Not Compensable Work Time

In contrast to the California Supreme Court's ruling in Mendiola, a California appeals court in Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc. held that security guards who were "on-call" during rest breaks did not violate the California Labor Code's rest period requirements.

Augustus was a class action lawsuit brought by former non-exempt security guards of ABM, who alleged that ABM's requirement that they keep their pagers on and remain vigilant and respond when needs arise during paid rest breaks violated Labor Code 226.7's requirement that they be free from "work" during the rest periods. The plaintiffs principally sought labor code penalties as their remedy. The court determined that being on-call during a rest period—during which time the employee could engage in various non-work activities such as smoking, reading, making personal calls and browsing the Internet—did not constitute working, and that plaintiffs offered no evidence that anyone's rest period had ever