In Integrity Staffing Sols., Inc. v. Busk, 574 U.S. 27 (2014), the Supreme Court held that under the Fair Labor Standards Act, time warehouse workers spent waiting for and undergoing security screenings was not compensable time. More broadly, the decision clarified the proper analysis of “principal activities” verses preliminary and postliminary activities. Principal activities are compensable under the FLSA. Purely preliminary or postliminary activities (like a commute) are not, but some activities before or after a shift might still be compensable principal activities. The term “principal activities” includes all activities which are an “integral and indispensable part of the principal activities.” An activity is “integral and indispensable to the principal activities” if it is an “intrinsic element of those activities and one with which the employee cannot dispense if he is to perform his principal activities.” 574 U.S at 33.
Facts
Busk worked for Integrity Staffing Solutions as an hourly warehouse worker. Integrity Staffing provided warehouse staffing to Amazon. Integrity Staffing’s warehouse workers retrieved and packaged products for delivery to Amazon.com customers. Integrity Staffing required these employees to undergo a security screening before leaving the warehouse each day, but did not pay them for the time (roughly 25 minutes each day) they spent waiting for and undergoing the screening. Busk and his co-workers filed suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act. They asserted, inter alia, they were entitled to compensation for the time they spent waiting to undergo and undergoing the screenings. They also argued the screenings were compensable because the company could have reduced the time involved to a negligible de minimis amount by adding screeners or staggering shifts, and because the screenings were conducted to prevent employee theft and, thus, for the sole benefit of the employers and their customers.
The District Court dismissed this claim. It held the screenings were not integral and indispensable to the employees’ principal activities but were instead postliminary and noncompensable under the Portal–to–Portal Act. The Ninth Circuit reversed that decision in part, holding that the postshift screening would be compensable as integral and indispensable to the employees’ principal activities if the screenings were necessary to the principal work and performed for the employer’s benefit. Integrity Staffing appealed.
The Court’s Decision
The Supreme Court reversed. It held the time the warehouse workers spent waiting to undergo and undergoing security screenings was not compensable under the FLSA.
First, the Court explained Congress passed the Portal–to–Portal Act in response to the “unexpected liabilities” created by a broad judicial interpretation of the FLSA’s undefined terms “work” and “workweek.” See 29 U.S.C. § 251(a). The Portal–to–Portal Act therefore exempted employers from FLSA liability for claims based on “activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to” the principal activities that an employee is employed to perform. 29 U.S.C. § 254(a)(2).
The Court had long held that the term “principal activities” includes all activities which are an “integral and indispensable part of the principal activities.” Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U.S. 247, 252–253 (1956). In Integrity Staffing, the Court further explained that an activity is “integral and indispensable to the principal activities” if it is an “intrinsic element of those activities and one with which the employee cannot dispense if he is to perform his principal activities.” 574 U.S at 33.
For example, in Steiner, the Court held the time battery-plant employees spent showering and changing clothes was compensable because the chemicals in the plant were “toxic to human beings” and the employer conceded that “the clothes-changing and showering activities of the employees [were] indispensable to the performance of their productive work and integrally related thereto.” Id. at 34 (quoting Steiner at 249, 251). Similarly, in Mitchell v. King Packing Co., 350 U.S. 260, 262 (1956), the Court held compensable the time meatpacker employees spent sharpening their knives because dull knives would “slow down production” on the assembly line, “affect the appearance of the meat as well as the quality of the hides,” “cause waste,” and lead to “accidents.” 574 U.S. at 34 (quoting Mitchell at 262). By contrast, in IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U.S. 21 (2005), the Court held noncompensable the time poultry-plant employees spent waiting to don protective gear because such waiting was “two steps removed from the productive activity on the assembly line.” 574 U.S. at 34 (quoting IBP at 42). The Court further noted Department of Labor regulations were consistent with this approach. See 29 CFR § 790.8(b) (“The term ‘principal activities’ includes all activities which are an integral part of a principal activity.”); 29 CFR § 790.8(c) (“Among the activities included as an integral part of a principal activity are those closely related activities which are indispensable to its performance.”); 29 CFR 790.7(g) (examples of preliminary and postliminary activities). 574 U.S. at 30-35.
The Court then held the security screenings at issue in Integrity Staffing were noncompensable postliminary activities. First, the Court determined the screenings were not the principal activities the employees were employed to perform. The workers were not employed to undergo security screenings. They were employed to retrieve goods from the warehouse and package them for shipment. Nor were the security screenings “integral and indispensable” to those activities. In support of this conclusion, the Court cited a 1951 Department of Labor opinion letter, which found noncompensable under the Portal–to–Portal Act both a preshift screening conducted for employee safety and a postshift search conducted to prevent employee theft.
The employees in Integrity Staffing, like the Ninth Circuit, essentially took the position that if an activity was required by an employer it was compensable under the FLSA. The Court disagreed with this approach, noting that it would sweep into “principal activities” the very activities that the Portal–to–Portal Act was designed to exclude from compensation (like the time waiting to don protective gear held noncompensable in IBP). Finally, the Court rejected the employees’ argument that the screenings were compensable because Integrity Staffing could have reduced the time to a de minimis amount. Whether an employer could conceivably reduce the time employees spent on a preliminary or postliminary activity did not change the nature of the activity or its relationship to the principal activities that an employee is employed to perform. Therefore, that concern was properly addressed through bargaining, rather than in a suit under the FLSA. 574 U.S. at 35-37.
Analysis
In sum, Integrity Staffing clarified the analysis of “principal activities” verses preliminary and postliminary activities. Principal activities are compensable. The term “principal activities” includes all activities which are an “integral and indispensable part of the principal activities.” An activity is “integral and indispensable to the principal activities” if it is an “intrinsic element of those activities and one with which the employee cannot dispense if he is to perform his principal activities.” 574 U.S at 33. More specifically, Integrity Staffing stands for the proposition that time spent waiting for and undergoing security screenings was not a principal activity and therefore not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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