A court ruled 100,000 warehouse workers from a major online retailer are owed more than $100 million in back wages and penalties for time spent in security lines at the end of their shifts. Workers were required to pass through metal detectors at the end of every shift as a measure put in place to clamp down on employee theft. As a result, these security measures cost the company hefty penalties in an extremely complicated and lengthy wage and hour lawsuit. According to employees, the security check often took up to 25 minutes, for which they were not compensated. As they were not allowed to leave before undertaking the mandatory security check, the plaintiffs argued that the time spent waiting for and undergoing the checks should be paid as time worked.

The case was first dismissed in a Nevada district court in 2011, however, in April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision because the workers have a ”plausible claim for relief”. The attorneys for the warehouse workers have plans to take the lawsuit national with the intent of trying to enlist workers from warehouses throughout the country, regardless of whether the employees work directly for the companies themselves, or through a staffing agency. Either way, companies using staffing providers to employ their temporary workers should ensure they have proper communication, plus checks and balances with the providers in place. More often than not, client companies are considered co-employers and could be held liable for the mistakes of their staffing providers.

Read about the full case from Security Info Watch

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