This issue has not proved to be imponderable in similar unpaid wages lawsuits brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, the Second Circuit had previously tossed the question of what Connecticut law means and how it interacts with federal law to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which has the last word on this topic. “Tinker to Evers to Chance,” as baseball aficionados say – known to everyone else as “hot potato.”
Meanwhile, roughly 20,000 FedEx warehouse workers would really like to know the answer. It adds up to 10 to 20 minutes a day. Multiply that by shifts per week, work weeks per year, and 20,000 workers.
Now we’re talkin’ real money.
Security checks and clocking in and out
FedEx has maintained warehouse facilities in Windsor, South Windsor, Middletown, Wallingford, Stratford and Willington, Connecticut, since August 2018. Hourly workers at those facilities were required to go through a bag check:
-
before clocking in at the beginning of a shift;
-
after punching out at the beginning of a lunch break;
-
before punching in when they returned from lunch; and
-
after clocking out at the end of a shift.
The total time required to stand in line for a security check and walk to and from the screening area to the time clock was not insignificant. (These are generally very large warehouse facilities.) The total time could be as much as 10-20 minutes per day. Workers are paid only for the time between clocking in and out. They are not paid for waiting or walking time.
CMWA
The FedEx workers contend that the CMWA requires employees to be paid for all “hours worked,” which is defined in part as “all time during which an employee is required by the employer to be on the employer’s premises.” FedEx argued that neither security nor walking time is compensable under the CMWA, and that, even if any of this time were theoretically compensable, the facts demonstrate that the time was so de minimis (often on the scale of seconds) as to be rendered non-compensable. On FedEx’s motion, the lawsuit was removed to federal court.
The FLSA
This is where things get complicated. The general Constitutional principle is that when state law and federal law cover exactly the same situation, federal law prevails. These situations are very rare.
The federal FLSA, as amended by the Portal-to-Portal Act, provides that employers are not required to pay for the time employees spend on activities occurring before or after they perform the principal activities for which they are employed. For example, compensable working time generally does not include time spent:
The hot button question is whether the exception applies to the FedEx workers because federal law preempts Connecticut wage law.
This is where the Connecticut District Court punted to the Second Circuit. The lawsuit pending in the Second Circuit, Del Rio v. Amazon.com Servs., Inc., appears to address the same problem.
Del Rio v. Amazon.com Servs., Inc.
READ MORE CALIFORNIA UNPAID WAGES LEGAL NEWS
In Del Rio, employees filed a complaint seeking payment of straight-time and overtime wages under Connecticut’s wage laws and regulations for time spent undergoing mandatory security screenings at their place of employment after clocking out. On March 17, the Second Circuit certified to the Connecticut Supreme Court the question of whether Connecticut’s wage laws and regulations require employees to be paid for the time spent going through mandatory security screenings. Additionally, if time spent going through mandatory security screenings is compensable, they asked the Connecticut Supreme Court whether a de minimis exception applies.
The Connecticut Supreme Court has discretion about whether to take up this question. It has not yet indicated whether it will or not.
Is this frustrating for the folks who want to get paid?
You bet it is. Cold comfort as it is, though, there is a long-term benefit to consistency in the law.
It is ultimately up to the Connecticut Supreme Court to decide what the CMWA means and how to align it with federal rules.
So now we wait.
Source link
