Articles Posted by Insights

What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt You: Appeals Court Rules that Employer’s Lack of Knowledge of Employee’s Off-the-Clock Work Not Compensable

Published on: January 13, 2012 | by Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C.

Employment Law Newsletter

By now most employers know that the wage payment mandates of the FLSA may require an employer to compensate employees for unauthorized work time when the employer “suffers or permits” the employee to work and receives the benefit of the employee’s services. However, a federal appeals court recently issued a decision that may give employers some ammunition in defending claims for unauthorized work.

In , the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the plaintiff manager’s attempt to secure compensation for regularly reporting to duty 15 to 45 minutes before the start of her shift to engage in activities such as reviewing employee schedules, distributing materials to subordinates’ workstations, cleaning work areas and preparing prototypes for production.