In Segura v. J.W. Drilling, Inc., the Court of Appeals has held that the state Minimum Wage Act does not require employers to pay workers overtime wages for the time they spend traveling to and from work.
The plaintiffs relied on workers’ compensation cases applying the “traveling employee” rule in some circumstances, but Judge Bustamante’s opinion rejected their claim, because workers’ compensation law is “sui generis.”
The lesson here is to be cautious when using concepts from workers compensation law in other contexts, because they will rarely apply. (But kudos to the workers’ lawyers here for coming up with a creative legal theory.)
