Balestrieri v. Menlo Park Fire Prot. Dist., No. 12-15975 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs, firefighters and emergency medical personnel of the District, filed suit under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. 254(a), claiming that two of the District's policies violate the FLSA and claiming entitlement to overtime for taking their gear to temporary duty stations. Further, plaintiffs claimed that the District's system for paying cash in lieu of unused leave time violates the FLSA. The district court granted summary judgment to the District. Under Busk v. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., it is not enough to make activity compensable under the FLSA that the employer requires it and it is done for the benefit of the employer. Even activities required by the employer and for the employer’s benefit are “preliminary” or “postliminary” if not integral and indispensable to “the productive work that the employee is employed to perform.” In this case, the court concluded that driving to the home station first is not indispensable to the firefighter's principal activities. Further, gathering and transporting turnout gear to a visiting station is a preliminary activity because it is not intrinsic to the firefighting activity that he is employed to perform. The court rejected the firefighters’ contention that leave buyback should be included in the calculation of the regular rate. The court concluded that plaintiffs cannot prevail under either conflicting standard among the court's sister circuits. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Labor Law. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in an action brought by firefighters and emergency medical personnel under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Applying Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, 135 S. Ct. 513 (2014), the panel held that the plaintiffs were not entitled to overtime for taking their gear to temporary duty stations because this activity was not integral and indispensable to the principal activities the plaintiffs were employed to perform and therefore was “preliminary” or “postliminary” under the FLSA as amended by the Portal-to- Portal Act. The panel also held that the Menlo Park Fire Protection District did not violate the FLSA by excluding money paid for leave buybacks from the plaintiffs’ “regular rate” of pay, which was used to calculate overtime. 4 BALESTRIERI V. MENLO PARK FIRE PROT. DIST.
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