“WE DO WHAT OUT THERE?”
HAVE YOU CONDUCTED YOUR POST SURVEYS YET?
Barry A. Bradley, Esq., Bradley & Gmelich, CALSAGA Network Partner
The best way to defend your business when you are hit with a wage and hour lawsuit (whether by an individual, a class action, or a Private Attorneys General Act [PAGA] claim), is to have conducted a well-tailored post survey. It is a tool that your account managers should implement to show that your company has gone through the mental and physical assessment of each post and shift to be compliant with the law.
In just a few minutes, a post survey will assist you in helping to determine such things as:
- Are the officers able to be provided off-duty meal breaks?
- If not, why not?
- Are valid on-duty meal period consents and policies in place?
- Are the officers taking their required rest breaks?
- Are the rest breaks truly “off duty?”
- Is there adequate seating in compliance with the Labor Code?
- Is there heat illness prevention policies and procedures in place?
- Is there potable water available?
- In interviewing the officers, are there blind spots about which you weren’t even aware?
These are just a few of the questions that can be answered in a good survey. Your particular situations will be different, depending upon the type of client you have and the type of security services offered.
If makes it much easier for your attorneys to defend you when we can pull out your completed site surveys to show that you made valid, good faith actions to comply with the law. In short, it makes us happy. (And we know how you care about your attorney’s happiness – it brings you good karma!)
If you haven’t yet prepared or updated your specific policies to be compliant, or if you need post surveys prepared for your particular line of work, don’t hesitate to contact your counsel to help you. We often “train the trainer” and, in these instances, train the account managers so they know how to do these surveys on their own.
A little effort on your part will not only save you grief, but ultimately a lot of money.
Barry A. Bradley is the Managing Partner of Bradley & Gmelich LLP located in Glendale, California, where he heads up the firm’s Private Security Team and oversees the Employment and Business Teams at the firm. A former Deputy District Attorney, Barry’s practice concentrates on representing business owners in employment, business and licensing issues, as well as defending litigated cases involving negligent security, employment and business related issues. The firm acts as general counsel for many security companies in California. Barry is the Legal Advisor to CALSAGA.
He has been conferred an AV-Preeminent Peer Rating by Martindale Hubbell, the highest rating attainable, and has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer for the past 14 consecutive years in the area of Business Litigation. Barry is also the recipient of CALSAGA’s Security Professional Lifetime Achievement Award. bbradley@bglawyers.com 818-243-5200.