The time warehouse workers spend going through security screenings is not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Dec. 9. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, et al., No. 13-433, (U.S. Sup. Ct., Dec. 9, 2014).
The court, in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Thomas, said the Amazon.com workers couldn’t proceed with a lawsuit seeking wages for the security checks because the time they spent waiting to be screened wasn’t an integral and indispensable part of their jobs.
The case could have been a disaster for many retail and warehouse employers, had it gone the other way. Thankfully, it didn’t. The Court stood by its longstanding interpretation of the Portal-to-Portal Act, which treats preliminary and postliminary activities such as this as noncompensable.