Employment Law

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Michael Meadows v. NCR Corporation

Case No.: 21-3309

Officials: Sykes, Chief Judge, and Ripple and Kirsch, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Employment Law

NCR’s customer engineers (CEs) provide on-site service for NCR devices, primarily working remotely. NCR had instructed CEs to strictly adhere to their official work shifts, explicitly prohibited any off-the-clock work, and mandated the accurate recording of their working hours through an electronic system. If a CE worked overtime against NCR’s guidance, they would only be compensated for those extra hours if they were properly recorded. In the case of Mr. Meadows, during his tenure as a CE from 2008 to 2019, he was compensated for any unauthorized overtime hours that he recorded, but he received no compensation for unrecorded overtime.

Mr. Meadows subsequently filed a lawsuit against NCR under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), specifically 29 U.S.C. 201, seeking compensation for the overtime work that went unrecorded. The district court’s ruling held that Meadows’s off-the-clock activities were not considered core responsibilities of his job but were considered incidental. According to the FLSA, employers are required to compensate employees for their principal activities, but not for incidental activities, unless an exception applies, such as when compensation is mandated by an employment contract or customary practice. The court argued that NCR could not evade liability by imposing a requirement to record working hours on its existing customary practice of compensating for incidental activities because NCR had constructive knowledge of these activities.

However, the Seventh Circuit disagreed with this interpretation. According to their ruling, the FLSA does not necessitate overtime pay for incidental activities, even if the employer traditionally compensated employees for such activities, if the employee failed to comply with the payment requirements established by that customary practice or contract.

Vacated and remanded.

Decided 10/05/23

Full Text