[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR785.7]

[Page 690-691]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 785_HOURS WORKED--Table of Contents
 
         Subpart B_Principles for Determination of Hours Worked
 
Sec. 785.7  Judicial construction.

    The United States Supreme Court originally stated that employees 
subject to the act must be paid for all time spent in ``physical or 
mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by 
the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of 
the employer of his business.'' (Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. v. 
Muscoda Local No. 123, 321 U. S. 590 (1944)) Subsequently, the Court 
ruled that there need be no exertion at all and that all hours are hours 
worked which the employee is required to give his employer, that ``an 
employer, if he chooses, may hire a man to do nothing, or to do nothing 
but wait for something to happen. Refraining from other activity often 
is a factor of instant readiness to serve, and idleness plays a part in 
all employments in a stand-by capacity. Readiness to serve may be hired, 
quite as much as service itself, and time spent lying in wait for 
threats to the safety of the employer's property may be treated by the 
parties as a benefit to the employer.'' (Armour & Co. v. Wantock, 323 
U.S. 126 (1944); Skidmore v. Swift, 323 U.S. 134 (1944)) The workweek 
ordinarily includes ``all

[[Page 691]]

the time during which an employee is necessarily required to be on the 
employer's premises, on duty or at a prescribed work place''. (Anderson 
v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680 (1946)) The Portal-to-Portal 
Act did not change the rule except to provide an exception for 
preliminary and postliminary activities. See Sec. 785.34.