Supreme Court Takes On Amazon Warehouse Workers’ Case Over Unpaid Time

Should warehouse workers have to spend their own free time waiting for security procedures after their work shift is done, or should companies like Amazon have them on the clock during that process? Amazon workers have been fighting to collect pay for that time spent in line waiting for security checks, and the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear their case.

The SCOTUS will use this Amazon case to consider whether or not companies should have to pay their employees for activities they require of them, like having their personal belongings searched before they leave work, reports Bloomberg News.

The justices will review a federal appeals court decision that allowed the Amazon lawsuit over security lines at warehouses in Nevada.

Similar claims have popped up at companies like CVS and Apple as well, so whatever the justices decide will likely have a far-reaching effect anywhere there’s a theft prevention policy in place.

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires compensation for both pre- and post-shift activities that are “integral and indispensable” to an employee’s basic job functions. The SCOTUS ruled on another part of that law in January, saying that companies don’t have to pay workers for the time they spend putting on or taking off safety gear in situations where a collective bargaining agreement doesn’t include compensation.

Amazon Warehouse Worker Case Accepted by Supreme Court [Bloomberg News]

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