Case Study: Wage and hour, clocking out for bathroom breaks

American Future Systems publishes newsletters and most employees are telemarketers. The employer required workers to clock out to take bathroom, water and rest breaks.

The Labor Department filed a lawsuit against American Future Systems in 2012 after determining that the employees were not earning minimum wage after the employer was accounting for restroom breaks that were 2 to 3 minutes long.

The FLSA does not require meal breaks, but it does require that short breaks (5-20 minutes long) are compensable that must be included in the weekly sum of hours as well as relevant for overtime calculations.

American Future Systems has been ordered to pay at least $1.75 million in damages and back pay to 6000 workers who were employed at 14 call centers. Fortune reports that the company and the DOL are still “working out how much the total cost will be.” American Future Systems has been found liable for back wages resulting from the unpaid breaks, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. The company has been required to submit a proposal on how it will manage paying the award.

Jim Cain, Wage and Hour district director wrote in a press release that “the judge’s decision reaffirms how clear the FLSA is about short breaks being compensable, and goes a long way in making these employees whole by awarding liquidated damages.”