Court rules walks to cafeteria don’t count on workday clock

In a case brought by a pair of warehouse workers, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that time spent going through loss-prevention security checks should be on the clock, but long walks to lunch in the company cafeteria shouldn’t.

The decision published on Friday, meant to stand as precedent in the territory that includes Nevada, concerned Jesse Buck of Las Vegas and Laurie Castron of Reno. Both are former employees of Integrity Staffing Solutions, which placed people in Amazon.com warehouses in Las Vegas and in Fernley.

Both said they had to go through security clearances at the end of each shift, standing in line for as long as 25 minutes and passing through metal detectors to ensure they were not stealing inventory. Because this process stemmed from the nature of the work, the court decided they should be paid for the time.

But the court also found that walking to lunch was not a necessary part of the job, so the workers could not get paid for the 10 minutes they spent walking to and from the cafeteria out of a 30-minute lunch period.

The case was filed in October 2010. U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt dismissed it in July 2011, ruling against the workers.

Contact reporter Tim O’Reiley at
toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.