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The lawsuit, filed by former Amazon employees Gale
Miller-Anderson and Lisa Johnson, claims the company required
unpaid COVID screenings before shifts.
Amazon argues Illinois law follows federal rules that allow some
pre-shift time to go unpaid.
The case centers on whether Illinois’ Minimum Wage Law offers
broader worker protections than federal law. Plaintiffs
Miller-Anderson and Johnson are represented by attorney Donny
Foty.
“There’s a federal law called the Fair Labor Standards Act, and
the Fair Labor Standards Act, generally speaking, is the law
that applies to all states in the country,” Foty told TCS.
Foty explained federal law sets minimum wage and overtime
requirements, but Congress later carved out exceptions that
limit what counts as paid work.
“Broadly speaking, the Fair Labor Standards Act defines what
exactly is work,” Foty said. “And then Congress later passed an
exception that basically says not all work is compensable.”
Under federal law, only an employee’s “principal activity,” or
tasks that are “integral and indispensable” to it, must be paid,
meaning some pre-shift or post-shift activities are not
compensable, according to Foty. But Foty said Illinois law is
different.
Amazon points to a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Integrity
Staffing Solutions v. Busk, which held that warehouse workers
did not have to be paid for time spent in mandatory anti-theft
screenings after clocking out.
“In that case, the Supreme Court said no, the employer didn’t
have to pay for that time,” Foty said. “The reason was that the
anti-theft screening was not integral and indispensable to the
workers’ principal activities.”
Amazon argues the same logic applies to COVID screenings.
“Some states have enacted their own version of a wage and hour
law,” he said. “Illinois has. The General Assembly of Illinois
has passed the Illinois Minimum Wage Law.”
Attorney General Kwame Raoul has filed a brief supporting the
workers’ position, signaling the state’s interest in how the law
is interpreted.
“Nothing in the Illinois Minimum Wage Law expressly incorporates
the exceptions from federal law,” Foty said. “Instead, if you
look at the regulations interpreting the Illinois Minimum Wage
Law, the law is actually contrary to federal law.”
A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could affect employers
statewide by expanding what activities must be paid under
Illinois law, while a ruling for Amazon would reinforce
alignment with federal standards.
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