A quick lesson from a wage and overtime case that I just settled earlier this month — if your employer asks you to undertake a task that benefits the employer, then the employer may be required to pay you for that task. In this case, my client drove a truck for a national healthcare services corporation delivering medical supplies to patients at their homes.
Each morning, however, his employer required him to drive his car to a warehouse to pick up the truck, make sure it was loaded with medical supplies, and then drive it to the employer’s office, where he would receive his daily delivery schedule. The employer only paid my client from the time he checked in at the employer’s office until the time he left the last patient’s house.
The employer did not believe that my client was entitled to be paid for the “travel time” incurred driving the truck from the warehouse to the office, but several courts that have considered similar factual scenarios have held that such time is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Fortunately, we were able to resolve the matter without the need for litigation, and my client received a favorable settlement.