U.S. Supreme Court Denies Employees' Security Screening Compensation Claims

In a decision impacting businesses across the country, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that time spent by warehouse employees waiting to leave work through a security screening checkpoint is not compensable. The employees were working at a retail warehouse for a temporary staffing services company, Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., and filed a class action lawsuit alleging that they should be compensated for the time they were required to go through an anti-theft security checkpoint after their shift ended. The employees alleged that the waiting "postliminary" activity time was up to twenty five minutes and involved removing belts, keys and phones as well as passing through a metal detector.

The trial court dismissed their claim adjudging the time to be not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  After an appeal, the United States Court of the Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the trial court's decision ruling that the time was compensable since it was not de minimis under the FLSA.

The Supreme Court granted a petition for review and reversed the Ninth Circuit's ruling. The Supreme Court ruled that the Portal to Portal Act's definition of compensable time under the FLSA included only those "integral and indispensable" activities that an employee was hired to perform, which did not include undergoing end of shift security checks for warehouse employees whose principal duties involved packaging related activities. The Supreme Court ruled that the Ninth Circuit incorrectly focused on the time the activity took to accomplish, holding that the Portal to Portal Act's definition instead considers the nature of the activities and its relation to the employee's principal duties.

The Supreme Court's ruling should allow employers to feel comfortable that "preliminary" and "postliminary" activities which are not "integral and indispensable" to an employee's principal duties can be unpaid under the FLSA.