Employers across the country are breathing a sigh of relief following the December 9, 2014 unanimous ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that time spent by warehouse workers waiting for and undergoing antitheft security screening is not compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk et al., No. 13-433. The opinion is of significant import for many of the nation’s largest employers, as security screening and bag checks have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of an employee’s ingress and egress to and from work. Indeed, the significance of this ruling is underscored by the spate of class-action suits that were filed after the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit’s determination in Busk et al. v. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., 713 F.3d 525 (2013), which held that such time could be compensable under the FLSA. Like the Busk litigation, the suits that followed the Ninth Circuit’s ruling have been brought by employees seeking back-pay for time spent in security screening, and represented massive potential liability. Justice Thomas authored the majority opinion that reversed the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Busk with a concurring opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor and joined by Justice Kagan.
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