I own a service for independent living training for adults with developmental disabilities in their own homes. I also care for seniors in their own homes.

Our applicants have to have finger printing-$52.00, CPR/First Aid- $50.00, a DMV printout-$5.00. We hold a video training that is free for our senior applicants/recruitments and give them a certificate of completion. If they decide to work for us we reimburse them for the training.

For our clients with developmental disabilities we give a one on one training to demonstrate teaching skills and give a certificate for that.

They cannot work for us unless the complete the trainings and have a complete application packet with the CPR/First Aid, Finger Printing, and DMV printout. This is due to California regulations that we must follow.

Many complete the application packet and do not work for us. Then they demand reimbursement for all of it including the training. It gets quite expensive. When they say they are committed to working for us we also give them an employee book that costs us around $30.00.

I have one person right now that is taking me to the labor board demanding reimbursement and pay for the 4 hour training. She refused her first assignment and said she changed her mind about working for us.

I pay by the book and follow every law I'm aware of, but I really have a hard time paying for nothing when they say they are going to work for us and then don't do it.

This person never turned in a time sheet and never returned the book. She never worked for us so I didn't even add her to payroll.

I called the labor board when she first told us she wasn't going to work for us and they told me we didn't have to pay for anything she could take with her. She received a copy of all the documents and a certificate for the training.

I'm really concerned about daily waiting penalties, but they did not list an amount on the labor hearing notice. I can't see how there could be daily rates if she never worked with a client.

I need to know if I'm doing this right and need to know how I can legally avoid paying out so much money for applicants that never work for us.

Thank you.

I'm pretty sure this is how it goes. You can also anonymously email or call your labor dept. and ask them any questions you have about any labor/wage issues. If the training is a pre-requisite for working for you, then before they you hire them they need to have the training done-they pay for it (like a nusre needs a licensed, doctors need a phd, etc.). Any training required before getting hired for a job is the responsibility of the prospective employee. Any training required in order keep a job needs to be paid an hourly wage. So if I apply for the job and you say you can't hire anyone who doesn't have cpr certification, I have to pay for myself to take it, no time compensated. If I need to renew it after two years, I get paid for my time. Then law doesn't say you need to pay for state mandated training, but there is nothing you can do if the employee can't afford the training or refuses to pay for it, so most employers will pay for state mandated training in addition to the time they are required to pay for. If the training is optional, the employee does not need to be compensated for the time.

My understanding is that CA-DLSE tends to regard "pre-employment training time" as compensable. I am including a pointer to a related opinion letter.

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/opinions/1993-11-29.pdf

The major exception is cited from the CA-DLSE manual.

46.7 Try Out Time. There may arise situations where an employer may wish to have a prospective employee exhibit skills such as typing, shorthand, or operation of machinery, before employment. The DLSE will accept such “try out time” as noncompensable if:
1. This time is not, in fact, training as opposed to testing skills;
2. there is no productivity derived from the work performed by the prospective employee, and
3. the period of time is reasonable under the circumstances.

46.7.1 Each case must be reviewed on its facts. For instance, the period of time to test skills of a sewing machine operator will be much less than that needed to test the skills of a computer programmer. While no particular time frame can be given, the rate of pay for the occupation can usually be used as a guide to determine the amount of time necessary for a “try out”.

I did end up winning this at the Labor Board hearing. It wasn't a good win though. It could have gone either way. They said since she performed no work at the training and recieved a certificate we were not required to pay her.

They did not include reimbursement for the DOJ, CPR/First Aid, or DMV printout so I'm assuming they told her when she filed her complaint that we didn't have to pay for that.

We do reimburse all employees for everything after they have worked for us for 3 months and pay for all future trainings and documents and certificates they need.