Is waiting for a computer to start at the beginning of a shift, compensable time?
Steve Hall
5 Posts
We are a telephone customer service center. Employees (CSRs) do not share computers/work stations. Therefore, at the start of their shift, they need to boot their machines. Because of the software required to perform their work, this can take as much as 10 minutes from the time they sit down.
Our expectation is that a CSR should be ready to work (able to take calls and process them) at the start of the shift, and if this means they need to be in position 5 or 10 minutes earlier, their compensable time doesn't begin until the shift start time.
I was certain I'd seen DOL opinion letters addressing this several years ago, but going through the letters at the SHRM site, I can't find anything except a 1994 opinion on washing and changing clothes for meatcutters.
Can someone help me out with this? Is that "prep time" compensable? Can someone provide a reference either way?
Thanks!
~Steve in SD~
Our expectation is that a CSR should be ready to work (able to take calls and process them) at the start of the shift, and if this means they need to be in position 5 or 10 minutes earlier, their compensable time doesn't begin until the shift start time.
I was certain I'd seen DOL opinion letters addressing this several years ago, but going through the letters at the SHRM site, I can't find anything except a 1994 opinion on washing and changing clothes for meatcutters.
Can someone help me out with this? Is that "prep time" compensable? Can someone provide a reference either way?
Thanks!
~Steve in SD~
Comments
It's different if they choose to change into a uniform at work when they're allowed to take their uniform home and change there instead.
James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers