Court holds California employers not required to reimburse employees for voluntary telecommuting
By Julia M. Ebert
A federal court has held that Cal. Labor Code section 2802 does not require employers to reimburse employees for internet and phone expenses when employees voluntarily telecommute. Novak v. The Boeing Company, Case No. 09-01011-CJC-(ANx) (C.D. Cal. July 20, 2011). In Novak, Boeing supplied physical workspaces with computers, phones, and necessary equipment at its offices, and employees were not required to work from home. The plaintiff employee, however, applied for and received permission to participate in Boeing’s virtual worker program. Boeing initially reimbursed virtual workers for phone and internet expenses, but later changed its reimbursement policy and ceased paying for such expenses. An employee sued for reimbursement under section 2802, and the court granted summary judgment to Boeing.
Section 2802 requires employers to reimburse employees for “necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequences of the discharge of his or her duties.” The court reasoned that, because the employee was telecommuting voluntary, his telecommuting expenses were not “necessary” to the discharge of his duties. Under Novak, a telecommuting program is voluntary, and therefore an employer need not reimburse employees’ expenses in connection with the program, where employees: (1) apply to work from home, (2) receive employer approval, (3) choose to work from home, and (4) as a result, could potentially incur phone and internet expenses, which the employer would pay for if the employee worked at the employer’s offices.
