My company held a meeting Tuesday mornings, 8am, to brief employees on various developments.
At some point, the manager of that department communicated that free coffee, pastries, and donuts would be catered and available as of 7:30am each Tuesday morning. Typical behavior was employees would arrive 5 or 10 minutes early, grab coffee and food, then head into the meeting.
Within a year my company was sued. An employee who had resigned their job filed a claim with the State Labor Commissioner. The claim was for back overtime pay- 1/2 hour per week. The employee alleged they felt "pressure" to show up by 7:30am on Tuesday mornings or face retaliation. The employee claimed they showed up every Tuesday for a year at 7:30am.
Our labor law attorney ($350/hr) presented our defense. She argued the 1/2 hour period was not working hours, there was no pressure to attend, and no retaliation if you did not. She presented other employees who testified that the complaining employee rarely ever showed up before 8am.
We lost-- the entire employee claim was awarded. The attorney bill was a few thousand dollars. And we owed the complaining employee a year's overtime pay plus penalties, interest, and damages.
Sometimes in business, things go bump in the night. Oh well-- you move on. But what tweaked me was the reasoning we received about the decision to award entirely in favor of the employee. The Labor Commissioner cited "the employer failed to present signed time cards covering the 1/2 hour period for each week."
In the end, everyone lost except the now-departed employee.
