An “Integral and Indispensable” Supreme Court Win For Employers Regarding What Counts As Time Worked Under the FLSA

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require employers to pay employees for time spent passing through post-shift security screening.

 

The decision, Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, is not only a major win for employers who use security screening.  The logic of the ruling is important for all employers because it clarifies the “integral and indispensable” test used to determine the compensability of employee activities that are not, themselves, principal activities.  It is now clear that the fact that an employer requires a particular activity does not make that activity integral and indispensable and, thus, compensable.  More is required.  For an activity to be integral and indispensable to a principal activity, it must be “an intrinsic element of those activities and one with which the employee cannot dispense if he is to perform his principal activities.”

 

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