Must hourly employees be paid for time spent in security screenings under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? The Court will decide this seemingly simple question in Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk. Local government employees who work in courthouses, correctional institutions, and warehouses routinely go through security screening at the beginning and/or end of the workday. The State and Local Legal Center’s (SLLC) amicus brief, which ICMA joined, argues that the time isn’t compensable.   

Jesse Busk and Laurie Castro worked at warehouses filling Amazon.com orders. They claimed that they should have been paid for the time they spent waiting and going through security screenings to prevent theft at the end of each shift.

The FLSA requires that “non-exempt” employees be paid for “preliminary” and “postliminary” activities if they are “integral and indispensable” to an employee’s principal activities. The Ninth Circuit concluded time spent in security screening is compensable because security checks must be done at work, are necessary to employees’ primary work as warehouse employees, and are done for the employer’s benefit.

The SLLC’s amicus brief argues that the Ninth Circuit improperly excluded “integral” from the “integral and indispensable” test. “There is nothing about removing personal belongings from one’s pockets and walking through a metal detector that can be characterized as ‘organically joined or linked’ to retrieving items from inventory and filling customers’ online orders.”  If the Supreme Court agrees with the Ninth Circuit, the SLLC’s brief warns that commuting to and from work could be compensable. Finally, the SLLC’s brief points out that as the nation’s largest employer, state and local government can ill-afford higher payroll costs.

The SLLC’s brief is joined by the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, U.S. Conference of Mayors, International Municipal Lawyers Association, Government Finance Officers Association, National Public Employer Labor Relations Association, International Public Management Association for Human Resources, and ICMA.