Aleman v. AirTouch Cellular, 209 Cal. App. 4th 556 (2012)

Two members of a putative class appealed from a trial court order granting summary judgment against them. The Court of Appeal affirmed summary judgment on the ground that the employee was not entitled to receive reporting time pay for attending meetings at work because all of the meetings in question were scheduled in advance, and the employee worked at least half of the scheduled time. The Court also held that another employee was not owed additional compensation for working split shifts because on each occasion a split shift was worked, the employee earned more than the minimum amount of pay required by the applicable wage order. In an earlier opinion, the Court of Appeal had reversed the trial court’s award to AirTouch of its attorney’s fees. However, in this opinion (and after consideration of the California Supreme Court’s intervening opinion in Kirby v. Immoos Fire Protection, Inc., 53 Cal. 4th 1244 (2012)), the Court determined that because a reporting time claim is brought to recover unpaid wages, it is subject to Cal. Labor Code § 218.5, which allows a prevailing defendant to recover its attorney’s fees.