State prison guards spent time before and after performing their principal guard duties at state prisons with activities including checking out weapons and other equipment, checking them back in, going through security and receiving and giving instructions from and to other guard units coming off or on work. The State and the guards’ union negotiated a memorandum of understanding covering pay which the Legislature then passed as state law and the Governor signed. That MOU operated to exempt the unionized workers from the wage and hour provisions of the FLSA as well as state wage and hour laws. However, the other, non-unionized prison workers were not subject to the MOU, and under state law, they were entitled to compensation from the time they came under the employer’s control until they left that control, and so were entitled to pay during the preliminary and postliminary activities that the FLSA did not require employers to pay for.
California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 4 (Rivera, J.); August 31, 2017; 2017 WL 3772542