Cadena v. Customer Connexx (2022)
Call center employees filed suit for overtime violations, contending that they were not paid for the time they spent booting up to their computers—a task that needs to be done in order to clock in for the employees’ shifts—nor for the time spent shutting down their computers after clocking out. The district court granted summary judgment for the employer on grounds that turning computers on and off and clocking in and out of the timekeeping system are not integral parts of the employees’ duties as call center customer service agents. Employees appealed.
The Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that booting up a computer is an integral and indispensable part of the employees’ duties because the employees could not do their work —receiving calls and scheduling—without turning the computer on. The court remanded to the district court the issue of whether powering down the computer was also an integral and indispensable part of the employees’ duties.
