The Employer’s Wage and Hour Advisor

The decisive issue in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk was whether anti-theft security screening at the end of employees’ shifts, which could last up to 25 minutes, was “integral and indispensable” to the employees’ duties as warehouse fulfillment  workers.

The Court held this time was noncompensable because the security screenings were not “the principal activity or activities” the employees were hired to perform, nor were the screenings “integral and indispensable” to the employees’ principal activity. The employees were hired to package items for delivery, the Court said, not “to undergo security screenings.” The fact that these screenings were required by the employer did not change the result—the integral and indispensable test is tied to the productive work that the employees are employed to perform, not whether the employer required a particular activity.