Supreme Court to Take on Security Check Pay in Wage & Hour Lawsuit

A staffing agency that provides workers at Amazon.com warehouses across the country is facing off against a wage and hour lawsuit, alleging that the employees are missing out on pay because of extensive security checks — a matter that has reached the Supreme Court.

While Integrity Staffing Solutions has argued that the practice of inspecting employees for potential signs of theft is not “integral” to the performance of the workers’ duties, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, arguing that the employees and their wage and hour lawsuit attorney had met the requirements to survive dismissal because of language contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act’s successor, the Portal-to-Portal Act.

In that case, the Ninth Circuit noted that “integral and indispensable” duties must be “necessary to the principal work performed” and “done for the benefit of the employer.” In the case of the Amazon.com warehouse workers, the key difference between their situation and those who were not entitled to unpaid wages claims were the scope of the requirements for those same security checks.

A U.S. District Court judge in Nevada found other situations where employees were subject to inspections, yet the Ninth Circuit ruled that in those cases, all employees and indeed visitors were subject to the same standards, which meant that it was better described as required travel time. In the case of the workers who are seeking back pay in the wage and hour lawsuit, those who performed duties that differed from those of the entire facility as a whole.

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As a result, those duties were “integral and indispensable” because the company required them for its own benefit. Compensation in that case, the appeals court decided, was fair because it was linked to the duties of a particular job that were not applicable to other employee classifications.

The extent of the potential ramifications are demonstrated by the amicus briefs, documents submitted for the Supreme Court’s review by parties not involved in the wage and hour lawsuit. They were submitted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers on behalf of Integrity Staffing Solutions.

The wage and hour lawsuit is Jesse Busk et al. v. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., originally Case No. 10-cv-01854, U.S. District Court, District of Nevada.

If you believe that you have missed out on pay because of your current or former employer’s illegal activity, find out if you have legal recourse. Submit your information at the Wage & Hour, Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit Investigation today for a free case eligibility review.