Supreme Court Agrees to Hear FLSA Security Screenings Case

Author: Michael Cardman, XpertHR Legal Editor

March 4, 2014

The Supreme Court will decide whether employees need to be paid for the time they spend in security screenings that occur before and/or after their shifts.

The High Court on March 3 agreed to hear the case Busk v. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., 713 F.3d 525 (9th Cir. 2013), cert. granted (U.S. March 3, 2014) (No. 13-433).

A ruling in favor of the employees "creates the potential for significant and completely unanticipated financial liability for thousands of employers throughout the United States who either use security screening themselves or who have employees who must otherwise undergo such screening," according to a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Society for Human Resources, the US Chamber of Commerce and others.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an employer must pay its employees for activities performed before and after their shifts (called preliminary and postliminary activities) only if they are "integral and indispensable" to their principal job duties.

Two federal appeals courts have previously held that security screenings are not integral and indispensable. Gorman v. Consol. Edison Corp., 488 F.3d 586 (2d Cir. 2007); Bonilla v. Baker Concrete Constr., Inc., 487 F.3d 1340 (11th Cir. 2007). But in the Busk case, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that they were, setting up a split in the circuits that the Supreme Court needed to resolve.

Since the Busk ruling was issued last year, employees have filed collective action claims against companies like Apple, Amazon and CVS, seeking compensation for time spent in security screenings.