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A New York federal court recently clarified that New York employers are not required to pay employees for routine “preliminary” or “postliminary” activities that occur before or after their core job duties - such as security screenings, clocking in and out, or walking to a workstation - unless those activities are “integral and indispensable” to the work the employee is hired to perform. In the decision, the court held that wage claims brought under the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) must be evaluated under the same standards as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), which explicitly excludes certain pre- and post-shift activities from compensable time.
This decision arose from a class action lawsuit against Amazon by warehouse workers who alleged that they were not paid for mandatory security and COVID-19 screenings conducted before and after their shifts - time they claimed totaled up to 30 minutes per day. The court dismissed the lawsuit, finding that these screenings were not sufficiently connected to the employees' actual job duties - packaging and sorting orders - to require compensation.
The ruling confirms that, at least in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Long Island, employers do not need to pay employees for routine tasks performed before or after their shifts. It is worth noting, however, that this area of law continues to evolve, and that courts in other states have reached different conclusions when interpreting their own wage laws. Accordingly, multi-state employers, and employer operating in different parts of New York, should evaluate their practices on a state-by-state basis.
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