Takeaway: Multiple courts have held that the time spent by nonexempt employees booting up their computers counts as part of their hours worked.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an employer's argument that computer start-up time occurred prior to certain employee shifts and that it was not integral and indispensable to employees' duties. As a result, that time may be compensable. In this case, call-center employees used their computers to make and answer telephone calls, and thus could not perform duties until the computers were turned on.
The plaintiffs and similarly situated employees were employed by Customer Connexx LLC to operate a customer service call center in Las Vegas for an appliance recycling business. Their primary responsibilities were to provide customer service to and schedule appointments for customers over a "soft phone" operated through employer-provided computers.
Plaintiffs worked in a variety of hourly, nonexempt positions, primarily as call-center agents. Connexx prohibited off-the-clock work and required hourly employees to record their actual hours worked each day. Employees clocked in and out using a computer-based time-keeping program, and had to clock in before accessing other job-relevant programs. To reach the time-keeping program, employees had to awaken or turn on their computers, log in using a username and password, and open up the time-keeping system.
The plaintiffs were not assigned a particular computer, and, depending on...
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