Pennsylvania Employers Must Pay For Time Spent In Security Screenings

• Published date: 04 August 2021
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Employee Benefits & Compensation, Employment Litigation/ Tribunals, Class Actions
• Law Firm: Proskauer Rose LLP
• Author: Mr Allan Bloom and Eric D. Novak

On July 21, 2021, answering a question certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that time spent by employees waiting to undergo and undergoing mandatory security screening on an employer's premises is compensable "hours worked" under Pennsylvania law. The decision from the Commonwealth's high court, in In re Amazon.com, Inc., No. 43 EAP 2019, is in stark contrast to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2014 holding in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, 574 U.S. 27 (2014), which held that time spent in security screenings is not compensable under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").

Busk and Federal Law

Under amendments to the FLSA in the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 (and codified in 29 U.S.C. ' 254(a)(2)), an employer is not required to pay for time spent in:

activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to [the] principal activity or activities [the employee is employed to perform], which occur either prior to the time on any particular workday at which such employee commences, or subsequent to the time on any particular workday at which he ceases, such principal activity or activities.

In Busk, the plaintiffs worked in one of Amazon's shipping warehouses retrieving products from shelves and packaging those products for shipment to Amazon customers. The employees were required at the end of each workday to spend significant time undergoing "security screening" before they could leave the premises, and sought compensation for the time spent in those screening activities. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the claim, holding that time is compensable under the FLSA only if the activity at issue "is integral and indispensable to the principal activities that an employee is employed to perform"-that is, "one with which the employee cannot dispense if he is to perform his principal activities." The Court concluded that the security screenings-while required by the employer-were not "integral and indispensable" to the employees' principal activities of retrieving and packaging products.

In re: Amazon.com, Inc.

States are, however, at liberty to establish higher standards and protections than the FLSA. In the class action lawsuit underlying In re: Amazon.com, Inc., the plaintiffs similarly challenged the defendants' policy of requiring warehouse employees to undergo security screenings and personal belonging searches after clocking out at the end of their shifts. The district court...