Vance v. Amazon.com, Inc.

Online retailers (Amazon) operate a Shepherdsville, Kentucky warehouse fulfillment center, where hourly workers fill orders, track merchandise, and process returns. Plaintiffs regularly worked at least 40 hours a week. Amazon tracked their hours with a “time clock” system; before permitting “clocked out” employees to leave, Amazon required them to “proceed through a lengthy theft-prevention security screening operation,” which took 10-30 minutes. Plaintiffs sued, alleging that nonpayment for the time spent in security screening violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 201, and its state-law counterpart. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred five related actions to the Western District of Kentucky for consolidation. While the cases were pending, the Supreme Court held, in Integrity Staffing v. Busk (2014), that security screenings were noncompensable under the Portal-to-Portal Act, which excludes certain “preliminary” and “postliminary” activities from the FLSA’s compensation requirements. Plaintiffs withdrew their FLSA claims, but argued that Integrity Staffing did not foreclose their claim to overtime under the Kentucky Wages and Hours Act. The district court granted Amazon judgment on the pleadings. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting an argument that Integrity Staffing was not an FLSA decision but rather a Portal-to-Portal Act decision and that Kentucky never enacted a Portal-to-Portal Act of its own. View "Vance v. Amazon.com, Inc." on Justia Law