A group of hospital workers claimed they routinely worked through breaks and outside of their scheduled shifts without pay.

What happened. Three registered nurses and an administrative assistant who worked for Boston Medical Center (BMC) filed a lawsuit claiming the Center deliberately used a “combination of unlawful pay practices and timekeeping policies” to deprive them of pay, including a timekeeping system that automatically deducts pay for breaks. They also charged that the BMC did not allow them to record time worked beyond their shifts and denied them pay for required training sessions.

The plaintiffs sued under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Massachusetts law, seeking class certification on behalf of more than 4,000 employees. A district court dismissed the charges, finding a lack of evidence that the BMC “had a concrete policy in place” to require employees to work beyond their recorded hours, or that “BMC’s managers or supervisors had knowledge of plaintiffs’ unpaid work.” The workers appealed.

What the court said. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, overturned the dismissal. The court found evidence that “because the employees’ assigned tasks often need to be completed by certain times, and because of understaffing and lack of relief during meal and work breaks,” BMC employees frequently worked beyond their scheduled shifts.

The court noted that “[t]his work, often required by defendants, was performed in the open,” and on more than one occasion, employees “questioned BMC managers about the practice of deducting time automatically from employees’ paychecks.” The BMC “scheduled [training sessions] during regular work hours and led the required sessions, demonstrating that they knew that the trainings were taking place.” The BMC “did nothing to account for the extra time worked,” the court concluded.

The court upheld the dismissal of individual charges against BMC’s former senior human resources director, but overturned the dismissal of FLSA claims against BMC’s former president and CEO, finding that she had sufficient control over working conditions to establish individual liability.

The BMC argued that the employees’ claims were barred under the arbitration clause of their collective bargaining agreement (CBA), but the court rejected that argument, noting that “FLSA claims are not subject to a CBA’s grievance and arbitration procedures simply because they address similar subject matter.” Manning et al. v. Boston Medical Center Corporation et al., 1st Cir., Nos. 12-1573 & 12-1653 (8/1/2013).

Point to remember. Employers should maintain and enforce a written policy barring hourly staff from doing any work activity off the clock.