Hours of Work

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While it is well established that standard commuting time from home to work (and back home again) is non-compensable, there is limited guidance as to application of this preliminary, non-compensable “commuting” window to the travel time associated with varying employment circumstances. Providing some clarity to employers within the Fifth Circuit (Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi), the…

While an employee must be paid for all hours worked under the FLSA, time which is “de minimis” may, depending on the circumstances, not be considered compensable “work.” Compensable “work” also does not include periods where the employer did not “suffer or permit” the employee to perform work. A federal judge in Florida recently invoked these concepts…

Under the FLSA, entitlement to overtime pay for non-exempt employees is analyzed on a workweek basis, however, an employee must have a fixed and regularly recurring 168-hour workweek. 29 C.F.R. §§ 778.104, 105. The regulations do contemplate that an employer may modify the workweek on a prospective basis, provided the “change is intended to be permanent and…

In the latest chapter in the series of cases brought throughout New York State involving compensation of Registered Nurses and other hospital medical support staff, Judge Norman A. Mordue recently rejected plaintiffs’ assertion that, by allegedly failing to include time spent working during meal periods in Plaintiffs’ hours worked, the hospital “deducted” from the plaintiffs&rsquo…

An employer’s failure to maintain proper records of hours worked by non-exempt employees results in an evidentiary burden shift in overtime cases. Rather than being entitled to rely on properly maintained records, the employer must rebut the employee’s claim of unpaid overtime provided the plaintiff supports his case with testimony leading to a “just and…

Employees who work at multiple work sites, such as cable installers and repair technicians, and often allege that their work requires them to perform certain tasks rendering what would otherwise be a non-compensable commute, compensable time.  Judge Robert C. Chambers of the Southern District of West Virginia recently rejected one such attempt. Davis v. …

In another setback for unionized non-exempt FLSA plaintiffs claiming as compensable time spent: 1) changing into work-related gear; and 2) traveling to their site of work from the changing point (typically in a production facility such as a factory or slaughterhouse), the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that U.S. Steel was…

Ascertaining the actual “hours worked” by a plaintiff alleging uncompensated working time is one of a factfinder’s most thankless tasks, requiring the judge or jury to apply prevailing law regarding what constitutes compensable “work” to conflicting testimony regarding when, where and how the plaintiff performed that work, and how much work the plaintiff performed. Such determinations…