Turning on a computer does not constitute the beginning of a workday, a federal judge ruled September 4 in Lott v. Recker Consulting. The workday starts when a remote worker opens and begins operating a program used as part of their principal work activities, and it ends when the employee closes out of the last such program, the court concluded.
Patient care associates who work from home sued their employers for alleged violations of the FLSA and Ohio law. The workers, who handled inbound telephone calls from patients of medical clients, sought payment for booting up, logging into, and shutting down their computers. The employers requested summary judgment.
The court found these activities to be preliminary or postliminary (and therefore not compensable): turning on the computer; entering a username and password; dual authentication; opening the timekeeping system; accessing a VPN; and shutting down the computer. Those activities may be indispensable, but “they are not integral to the employees’ principal duties of answering inbound calls,” the opinion said.
The court allowed the workers’ claims to proceed to the extent the employers did not pay them for principal work activities.