Companies Can Legally Conduct Employee Searches on Own Property
Q: My employer recently sent out a letter with our paychecks claiming the right to search an employee’s vehicle if it is on company property. Is this legal?
--S.B., Irvine
A: Yes. Especially after giving written notice to employees, employers have the right to search vehicles, toolboxes, briefcases, lunch boxes and backpacks that are brought onto company property.
An employer may even require employees to empty their pockets.
Searches of vehicles and containers brought onto company property are often necessary to prevent employees from bringing contraband such as drugs or weapons to work, or to prevent employees from stealing money, property or trade secrets.
The law typically holds that employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy against such searches while at work.
--James J. McDonald Jr.
Attorney, Fisher & Phillips
Labor law instructor, UC Irvine
Instructor Must Make Do With Compensation Plan
Q: As an adjunct instructor, I am required to plan lessons, grade papers, read assignments, maintain student records, review and fill out a plethora of forms.
I am also strongly encouraged to keep office hours, meet with students, attend division and departmental meetings, review textbooks and go to conferences. I typically put in a 40-hour week, but am only compensated for the 16 hours I am in class.
In your column I have read about employees suing employers that required them to take manuals home to read or to punch out and still work. How is my situation different?
--M.B., Venice
A: According to law, an employer can determine employee pay as long as the business complies with regulations such as minimum wage and overtime laws.
In your situation, it doesn’t appear that overtime would be an issue since you only put in a 40-hour week and presumably fewer than eight hours a day. The minimum wage probably does not apply since your payment for 16 hours probably exceeds the minimum wage, even when calculated on a 40-hour basis.
Thus, you are apparently stuck with the employment compensation plan to which you agreed. You knew or should have known when you accepted the assignment that there would be a substantial amount of time spent outside of class. That goes with the job.
You also apparently agreed to a certain pay schedule, regardless of whether the wages are based on class hours, actual hours, tenure, number of students or your educational background. Since you agreed to these conditions, “a deal’s a deal,” as long as it doesn’t violate overtime or minimum-wage laws.
When employees sue employers for work they have to take home, it may be for overtime work by employees who are nonexempt or who are paid strictly for the number of hours they work. As a professional, you might be considered exempt from overtime.
I often hear of complaints from exempt employees who are working 80-hour weeks or people in your situation who put in a lot of time for the money they earn.
The challenge is to do your arithmetic before you commit to the assignment, calculating how much you really would be making per hour. There’s no doubt that abuses occur in the workplace, but many times the employee agreed to the working conditions or continued to allow abuses to occur.
--Don D. Sessions
Employee rights attorney
Mission Viejo
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If you have a question about an on-the-job situation, please mail it to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; dictate it to (714) 966-7873, or e-mail it to shoptalk@latimes.com. Include your initials and hometown. The Shop Talk column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice. Recent Shop Talk columns are available at https://www.latimes.com/shoptalk.
