WAGE & HOUR

Case involving whether a certified class of state correctional employees was entitled to additional compensation for time spent on pre- and postwork activities, including traveling from the outermost gate of the prison facility to their work posts within the facility, traveling back from their work posts to the outermost gate, being briefed before the start of a shift, briefing relief staff at the end of a shift, checking out and checking back in mandated safety equipment, putting on and removing such equipment, and submitting to searches at various security checkpoints within the facility.

Plaintiff was employed by defendant as a warehouse associate and is a member of a putative class of employees who, during the period alleged in the complaint, were paid on an hourly basis and who, in addition to their normal hourly wages, received an “attendance bonus” if they were scheduled to work on a Saturday or Sunday, and did so, completing the full work shift. The amount of the bonus was a flat sum of $15 per day of weekend work, regardless of whether the employee worked in excess of the normal work shift on the day in question. A dispute arose as to how the employee’s overtime pay rate should be calculated when the employee has earned a flat sum bonus during a single pay period, specifically, what the divisor for purposes of calculating the per-hour value of the bonus should be.