California employers hoping to save money through a bring your-own device (BYOD) program should think twice about that objective, based on a recent California appellate decision. In Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, the California Court of Appeal held that employers must reimburse employees for required work-related use of personal cell phones—regardless of whether they incur any additional out-of pocket expense from that work-related use. While this decision raises more questions than it answers, it sounds a cautionary note for employers considering BYOD as a potential cost-savings measure.

Cochran v. Schwan’s: What did the court decide? -

This case began with Colin Cochran, a consumer service manager working for a food delivery provider, who needed to use his personal cell phone to make workrelated calls. His employer, Schwan’s Home Service (“Schwan’s”), did not reimburse him for using his cell phone for work purposes. Cochran filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all customer service agents who were not reimbursed for their work-related cell phone expenses. He claimed that Schwan’s was required to reimburse these expenses under California Labor Code section 2802 (“Section 2802”), which requires an employer to reimburse an employee for “all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties, or of his or her obedience to the directions of the employer.”