Ninth Circuit: FLSA De Minimis Rule Preserved
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APPLIES TO All Employers with Employees in AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NV. OR, WA, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands |
EFFECTIVE July 10, 2024 |
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Quick Look
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Discussion
In Cadena v. Customer Connexx LLC, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the de minimis rule is still enforceable in the context of overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The de minimis rule allows employers to forego paying employees for short, uncertain and indefinite periods of time that are irregularly worked off the clock.
In 2022, in this same case, the Ninth Circuit said that the time a call center employee spends booting up a computer is integral and indispensable to their work and therefore may be compensable. Upon return to the trial court from the initial ruling, the trial court said that even if booting up the computer was integral and indispensable to work, the time spent was de minimis and not compensable. The employees challenged the de minimis rule because it is not codified in the FLSA and the U.S. Supreme Court previously said the de minimis rule was not valid in the context of donning and doffing work clothing or equipment.
Here, the Ninth Circuit distinguished the Supreme Court’s prior ruling on donning and doffing as being based on a different FLSA section (§ 203(o)) than the overtime provisions (§ 207) at issue here. Additionally, the de minimis rule has never been found to be generally invalid under the FLSA. That being said, the court questioned whether the workers booted up and logged off every shift, making it so regular that the de minimis rule would not apply, and whether another timekeeping method would adequately record time worked, including while booting up and logging off their computers. Ultimately, the case was remanded back to the trial court to determine the answers to these questions.
Action Items
- Review timekeeping practices to ensure that worked time is appropriately captured.
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