FLSA case ends with $2.9M in back pay owed

Now’s a good time to consider what might be missing from your timekeeping records. A recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court throws the spotlight on recordkeeping.

In the collective action case, Tyson Foods didn’t keep track of how long certain employees spent putting on and taking off protective gear.

That’s because donning and doffing wasn’t time worked for the employees in question – or so the company mistakenly thought.

When the Supreme Court upheld the lower courts’ rulings, saying the activity was integral and indispensable to employees’ work, the next step was calculating overtime due under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Without records from the employer to determine the amount of time spent on donning and doffing, the court relied on a study.

According to that study, on a daily basis the pre- and post- employment task took an overage of 18 minutes for one department and 21.25 minutes for another department.

A jury verdict awarding the employees $2.9 million in back wages would stand, the High Court said.

Lesson learned

Your company may not be at risk of owing millions in back pay due to FLSA violations, but to avoid trouble here are some lessons learned from the Supreme Court case:

By keeping records of how employees spend their time onsite, even for tasks not necessarily seen as time worked, you won’t have to be at the mercy of estimates from employees or third-party experts.

Tyson Foods insisted the time needed for donning and doffing varied based on the type of equipment.

But without records from the company, the Court relied on the study, and the employees could proceed with their collective action.

Re-examine whether any pre- or post-shift work is compensable under the FLSA.

Even though some employees at Tyson Foods got paid for donning and doffing, the company didn’t take its efforts quite far enough.