Wage Law

The Second District Court of Appeal has ruled that employees who voluntarily take advantage of an employer's shuttle to work should not be considered to be on-the-clock until they arrive at their place of work. In Overton v. Walt Disney Company (2nd District No. B179854, Los Angeles County Superior Court case no. BC281489), employees who drove to work were required to park in an employee lot roughly one mile away from their places of work at the Disneyland resort. Disney provided a shuttle from this lot to the employee entrance. Plaintiff, a former Disneyland employee, who was assigned such parking, brought a class action on behalf of all Disney employees who parked in the satellite lot, seeking compensation for their travel time on the shuttle.

The court considered this claim in light of Morillion v. Royal Packing Co. (2002) 22 Cal.4th 575 ("Morillion"), a case in which the California Supreme Court held that employees must be compensated for travel time when their employer requires them to travel to a work site on employer-provided buses.

However, the undisputed evidence in the case showed that Disney employees were not required to drive to work and take the shuttle. Employees could take any form of transportation they chose, and, unlike the workers in Morillion, could simply show up at the employee work site, rather than report to the shuttle bus location. On these facts, the court held, this case falls outside the mandate of Morillion. Consequently, Disney's summary judgment is affirmed.

Shuttle time at Disney will continue to be on the employee's own time. You can download Overton v. Walt Disney Company here in pdf or Word format.