Page 88 - CPAAC_Fall2015

Fair Labor Standards Act Update

County Personnel Administrators Association of California (CPAAC) Fall Conference| September 17, 2015
Presented by: Jack Hughes

Compensability of Preliminary &
Postliminary Activities

Firefighters are assigned to a shift in one of seven
stations within the Fire District’s 30-square mile
jurisdiction. Each firefighter has one set of turnout gear
that can be left at their assigned station or taken home
after each shift. Firefighters can volunteer and/or be
ordered to work extra overtime shifts at any fire station.
Unless they take it home, firefighters have to stop by
their regularly assigned station to pick-up their turnout
gear before working an overtime shift at another fire
station.

Is the time associated with picking-up their turnout gear
to work overtime shifts compensable?

21

Compensability of Preliminary &
Postliminary Activities

No. On September 4, 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled that picking-up gear to move it from
one station to another is not integral to firefighters’
primary work and therefore not compensable.
Moreover, the firefighters were free to take their gear
home between regularly assigned shifts to avoid the
problem entirely.

Balestrieri v. Menlo Park Fire Protection District (9th Cir,
2015) Case No. 12-15975

22

© 2015 All rights reserved | www.lcwlegal.com 11