Industries
Employment Lawyers for California Warehouse and Logistics Workers
A quota cannot block your breaks, your bathroom time, or your safety compliance. And you have the right to see the numbers being used against you.
AB 701 Gives You Rights Against the Algorithm
Under AB 701, at Labor Code section 2100 and following, a covered warehouse employer must give every employee a written description of each quota at hire: the tasks per hour and the discipline that follows from missing it.
No quota can prevent your meal periods, rest breaks, bathroom use, or safety compliance. Discipline for time spent on those is unlawful, and a termination for missing an undisclosed quota is challengeable.
Your data right is free evidence. Make the request.
Current and former employees, within 90 days of separation, can request their quota description and 90 days of their personal work-speed data. The employer has 21 days to produce it.
There is also a rebuttable presumption of retaliation for any adverse action within 90 days of a complaint or a data request.
Breaks Under Quota Pressure
The scanner tells on the employer. Time-and-motion data shows breaks shorted, delayed past the fifth hour, or worked through.
Penalty Math
One hour of pay per day, per violation type, under Labor Code 226.7.
Illustrative: a $19 an hour picker shorted one break per shift across 250 shifts is owed $4,750. A facility of 300 employees on the same quota system turns that into a seven-figure PAGA and class case.
Run Your Own Numbers
Meal and Rest Break Penalty Calculator
Short-staffed shifts and skipped breaks are the pattern here. One added hour of pay per workday, per violation type.
Overtime Pay Calculator
Mandatory overtime, seven-day stretches, and off-the-clock security screening all cross the thresholds. Enter a typical week.
Heat in the Warehouse Is Now Regulated
California’s indoor heat illness standard at 8 CCR 3396, in force since July 2024, kicks in at 82°F. The employer must provide water, cool-down areas, monitoring and acclimatisation, with additional engineering controls and work-rest scheduling required at 87°F.
Retaliation for reporting heat or requesting cool-down rest violates Labor Code 6310. See retaliation.
Evidence: photos of thermometers, or their absence, denied cool-down requests, heat-complaint emails, and coworker symptoms.
Temp agency on the badge, warehouse on the schedule. Who pays?
Labor Code 2810.3 makes the client company share liability for unpaid wages and workers’ compensation coverage with the staffing agency. The warehouse cannot hide behind the agency.
Common patterns: “perma-temping,” meaning years of temporary work with no conversion, and rate differences between agency employees and directs doing identical work.
There is a misclassification variant too. Drivers and loaders on 1099s, where the ABC test presumes employment. See misclassification.
Wage Theft Patterns We See in Fulfillment
- Security screening and walk time off the clock.
- Rounding at the time clock.
- Unpaid pre-shift meetings.
- Uniform and equipment costs. See expense reimbursement.
In this churn-heavy sector the waiting time penalty adds up fast: your daily wage multiplied by up to 30 days under Labor Code 203.
Illustrative: $19 an hour × 8 hours = $152 a day × 30 = $4,560 for a late final check.
Where We Fight for Warehouse Workers
San Bernardino. The Inland Empire warehouse corridor, with San Bernardino County Superior Court venue and coverage across Riverside and Ontario. See San Bernardino.
Long Beach for port and drayage employees. See Long Beach.
Deadlines
Wage claims run 3 years, PAGA 1 year plus 65 days, and retaliation windows vary.
The AB 701 data request has its own 90-day post-separation limit, which makes acting fast after termination essential.
What to Do Right Now
- Request your quota description and 90 days of work-speed data in writing today, citing the AB 701 provisions.
- Photograph your scanner-metrics screens and any coaching or write-ups.
- Save pay stubs and the staffing agency contract.
- Note the temperature and date every time the floor runs hot.
- Do not sign anything at termination before a review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Be Fired for Missing Rate?
Not if the quota was never disclosed in writing, and never for time spent on breaks, bathroom or safety.
How Do I See My Own Numbers?
Make a written AB 701 data request. The employer has 21 days, and you have a 90-day post-separation window.
The agency hired me. Can I sue the warehouse?
Yes, through Labor Code 2810.3 joint liability.
Is Bathroom Time Protected?
Yes. A quota cannot count it against you, and discipline for it is a violation.
What Temperature Is Too Hot Indoors?
The 82°F and 87°F trigger points under the indoor heat standard.
Do I Have Rights Without Papers?
Yes. Labor Code rights apply regardless of immigration status. See immigrant worker rights.
My whole shift has the same problem. What does that mean?
Aggregation through class and PAGA claims. See class actions and PAGA.
Employment Law Resources
- Labor Code 2100 et seq., AB 701 warehouse quotas: leginfo
- Cal/OSHA, indoor heat illness prevention at 8 CCR 3396: dir.ca.gov
- Labor Code 2810.3, client employer and staffing agency shared liability: leginfo
- Labor Code 226.7, meal and rest premium pay: leginfo
Tell Us What Happened
One business day for a response. You pay nothing unless we win.