John Stewart
Tue, 07/12/2022
In a July 8, 2022 opinion, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected the State of Arizona’s argument that, as an employer, it could require its employees to undergo a 30-minute security screening process at the start of each shift, without paying for it.
The employees, correctional officers for the Arizona Department of Corrections, argued that the Arizona state wage and hour law–because of its broad definition of the term “work”–required payment (and treble damages) for the employees’ time spent engaging in security screenings for their employer’s benefit. The State of Arizona, in response, argued that the federal Portal-to-Portal Act should be incorporated, whole, into Arizona law. If so incorporated, the State argued, employee screenings would not be compensable under Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, 574 U.S. 27 (2014). (Of course, as we and others have successfully argued, Busk does not render all staff screenings non-compensable; when an employee’s principal activities include safety and security, time spent in security screening may be integral and indispensable to that principal activity, and therefore compensable under Busk.)
But no analysis under the Portal-to-Portal Act or Busk proved necessary here, as the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Arizona law operated independently of federal law in this respect. The case has been remanded to trial court for additional proceedings on whether the Arizona law’s definition of work includes time spent engaged in mandatory pre-shift staff screenings for an employer’s benefit. As basic fairness and common sense dictate, it certainly should.
Arizona now joins several other states (and the District of Columbia) that have rejected application of the federal Portal-to-Portal Act and its restrictive view of what constitutes compensable “work” before and after an employee’s shift.
If you have questions or believe your employer may be violating your rights, please feel free to contact us at info@mselaborlaw.com or 202-833-8855, or click here to learn more about wage theft violations.
