Labor & Employment Law

Lojack Accused of Stealing Time From Employees: A New Twist On De Minimis

By Mark E. Tabakman, Esq.

The Ninth Circuit has largely upheld a lower court's grant of summary judgment to the defendant employer in Rutti et al. v. Lojack Corp., Inc.   This case involved an alleged Fair Labor Standards Act violation that accused the defendant of failing to compensate its technicians for off-the-clock work. While the decision was largely affirmed by ruling that the plaintiffs were not entitled to compensation for time spent driving to work in a company-owned car, one vital part was vacated. 

Indeed, the Ninth Circuit found that the lower court erred in holding that the plaintiff should not be compensated for time spent at home each night uploading data about the installations performed that day on a 'personal data terminal' provided by the company. The court found the task appeared to be essential to the plaintiffs' principal work activities and the time spent performing the task (15 minutes) was not de minimis.  

Additionally, Plaintiff argued that his commute was compensable because his use of a Lojack vehicle was not voluntary and amounted to a condition of employment, and because Lojack put restrictions on his use of the vehicle, such as not being able to transport passengers. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court's rejection of the both those arguments.

Plaintiff also sought compensation for certain activities he performed off-the-clock in the morning and in the evening. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court's ruling that the tasks he performed in the morning, such as mapping and prioritizing work for the day, were not integral to the job and were related to the non-compensable commute.

While this is a seeming 'win' for employers, it also sheds light on what the courts will consider de minimis for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Notably, for tasks deemed integral to the job, a 15 minute work requirement each day will not be found to be de minimis and will be compensable.  The lesson for employers is that when preliminary or postliminary activities, i.e. before/after work, take up more than a few moments, a court, or a Department of Labor, will likely view that as productive work time, not de minimis.

Full post as published by Wage & Hour - Development & Highlights on August 31, 2009 (boomark / email).