Amazon warehouse workers’ case to be heard by Supreme Court

New York -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case brought by former Amazon warehouse workers that could determine whether companies have to compensate employees for time spent undergoing end-of the-shift security searches.



The case, Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk, involves former temporary employees of Integrity Staffing Solutions, which provides temporary workers for Amazon’s huge warehouses. The workers said they spent nearly 30 minutes some days waiting for the checks, time for which they were not compensated. (Amazon requires everyone entering and leaving its warehouses to pass through the security screens to prevent theft.)



The employees filed the suit in 2010, contending that the Fair Labor Standards Act required Integrity to pay them for activities that are “integral and indispensable” to an employee’s job. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the workers’ suit could go forward, which led similar cases being filed against Amazon directly and other third-party warehouse contractors. The Supreme Court is reviewing a federal appeals court decision that allowed that lawsuit to proceed.