The best defense for employers confronted with claims of “off-the-clock”, (i.e., unrecorded) work under the FLSA are accurate contemporaneous time records created by employees based on clearly communicated time keeping practices. The effectiveness of such records was recently demonstrated in Roberts v. Advocate Health Care, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103631 (N.D.

Joining a decision issued last fall by Southern District of New York Judge Andrew Carter, Judge Ronnie Abrams has also ruled that time spent by New York City employees in alcohol counseling required by their job did not constitute “work.”  Gibbs v. City of New York, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7960 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 23,