Court Rules No OT for Commuting in Company Vehicle
A federal court judge for the Northern District of Ohio ruled that a company did not have to pay overtime to a group of workers for time commuting to and from the work site in company trucks and for performing certain activities before and after work.
The case originated as a Fair Labor Standards Act case. The employer is open shop with 70 facilities in 19 states, mostly east of the Mississippi River. It has an office in Northeast Ohio.
The company provides temporary traffic control services at work sites. The employees drive to and from work sites in pickup trucks provided by the company. The vehicles are equipped with rooftop lights and display the company’s logo. The employees are paid only for work performed between the time they arrive at and leave the job sites.
The plaintiff employees were required to perform pre- and post-trip vehicle inspections, fuel the trucks, and transport their equipment and co-workers in the company trucks to and from the job sites. The plaintiffs sought to have the time spent doing these activities count toward the hours worked in a week.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiff employees contended they could not perform their job duties as traffic control specialists without performing these tasks.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the Portal-to-Portal Act (“PPA”), and the Employee Commuting Flexibility Act (“ECFA”) establish that normal travel from home to work is not worktime. However, travel time from job site to job site during the workday counted as hours worked.
The PPA and the ECFA make exceptions to compensability for time spent commuting to and from work, and for performing activities that are incidental to the use of a company vehicle for commuting. Performing preliminary and postliminary activities may not be integral and indispensable to the productive work that an employee is hired to do. For example, “shop time” when it is indispensable to the employee’s principal activities is compensable. “Shop time” is where an employee is required to report at a meeting place to receive instructions or to perform other work there, such as picking up tools or loading equipment before traveling to the designated place to work. Shop time would in that instance be part of the day’s work.
The court held that the inspections and driving to and from the work sites did not constitute compensable work. The employees failed to show that the tasks are integral and indispensable aspects of the principle activity for which the traffic control specialists were hired.
While the time spent traveling to and from another city in the same day is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the plaintiff employees failed to allege they traveled to other cities and states to perform their job duties.
The case is Luster et al. v. AWP, Inc. Questions regarding this article can be directed to Ice Miller attorney Patrick Devine at (614) 462-2238.
This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. The reader should consult with legal counsel to determine how the laws and the decision discussed herein may apply to the reader’s circumstances. |