Black Friday? Wal-Mart Ordered to Pay Truckers $55 Million

In our next employment law class, we will study the seemingly boring topic of preliminary and post-liminary pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. What the heck is that?

The most recent Wal-Mart lawsuit illustrates the concept. Wal-Mart paid drivers strictly by the mile. But they also required truckers— their employees, not contract drivers— to conduct pre- and post-trip inspections, take mandatory rest breaks and layovers between trips, and similar non-driving activities.

Many of us have preliminary and postliminary work. We inspect a vehicle, put on a work uniform, perform a safety check of a work area, and so on. Afterwards, we might be required to wash off chemicals, change out of a uniform, put away tools, and so forth.

If these pre- and post- activities and indispensable parts of the primary job, they constitute “compensable work.” 

Usually, these cases mean that the employer has failed to pay overtime at the time and a half rate because the pre- and post-work occur beyond the 40 hour mark.

Many employers pay only for our productive time—but not the time they require you do to a necessary but non-productive task, like a safety check.

This ruling applies to hourly wage earners, not salaried workers.

The magnitude of the ruling equates to the size of wage theft in this case.

A note: Wal-Mart lawyers should have known better. This is not new law; nor is it a novel situation. It's Wage-and-Hour Law 101—and unless (or until) the Trump administration takes away this regulation that dates to the late 1940s, it is the law.