12/21/2014 // Dallas, Texas, United States // Attorney Keith Clouse // Keith Clouse

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay a minimum wage and to pay overtime compensation for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours each workweek. Congress amended that statute with the Portal-to-Portal Act. This act exempts an employer from liability when an employee is: 1. Walking, riding, or traveling to and from the place where the employee performs the principal activities the employee is employed to perform; and 2. Performing activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to the employee’s principal activities.

A “principal activity” includes an activity that is an integral part of the employee’s principal activities and one that cannot be dispensed with if the employee is to perform his principal activities. For example, employees who work with toxic chemicals should be compensated for time spent changing clothes and meatpacking employees should be compensated for time spent sharpening knives because those activities are indispensable to the employees’ performance of their principal activities. On the other hand, employees waiting to receive paychecks or undergoing security screenings need not be compensated because employees could perform their principal activities without completing these activities.

This article is presented by the Dallas employment attorneys at Clouse Dunn LLP. To speak to an employment lawyer about the FLSA, send an email to debra@clousedunn.com or call (214) 239-2705.

Contact Keith Clouse

KEITH A. CLOUSE

Clouse Dunn LLP

214.220.2722 214.220.3833 ( fax) keith@clousedunn.com

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