No. An employer cannot make a nonexempt employee work while off the clock, so to speak. California law requires employers to accurately track when a nonexempt employee begins and ends each work period.
The strict time records mandate helps enforce California’s wage laws which require employers pay nonexempt employees at least the minimum wage, including overtime rates when applicable, for all hours worked. Closely related laws also require employers to provide nonexempt employees meal and rest periods also sometimes referred to as meal and rest breaks. For meal breaks, employers must provide nonexempt employees with a 30-minute uninterrupted break before working a period of more than 5 hours in a workday.
Some employers might try to make employees work off the clock to avoid paying wages. For example, an employer may tell an employee to clock out, or a manager may clock the employee out, for a lunch break and then encourage or require the employee to work off the clock. In that example, the employer illegally created time records showing that the employee took a break that the employee never actually received. Employers who do that, usually do not pay those employees for the time worked off the clock during the fake meal break.
In another example, an employer may require an employee to clock out at the end of the day and finish work tasks for the day while off the clock without receiving any pay for that time. These examples are illegal wage practices, and employees who are victims probably have claims against their employers for unpaid wages.