As employers and employees try to put one foot in front of another during this extraordinary time, we have been bombarded by a range of daily challenges wrought by the pandemic. Many employers implemented work-from-home programs virtually overnight, which applied to exempt and nonexempt employees alike. Now that employers have their remote work programs up and running and as some employees have begun to return to the physical workplace, it makes sense to assess potential wage-and-hour pitfalls and ensure that additional practices have been put in place to mitigate against the risk of wage-and-hour claims. 

Potential Challenges Returning to the Physical Workplace

Many employers have put in place screening protocols while entering the physical workplace such as temperature checks. To the extent that nonexempt employees are standing in lines for a period of time every morning, employers have inquired about whether those employees need to be paid for that time. The answer to that question is everyone’s favorite lawyerly answer—maybe. In 2014, the Supreme Court decided Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk, holding that post-shift security checks for warehouse workers were not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).