[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 29, Volume 3]

[Revised as of July 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 29CFR785.34]



[Page 649]

 

                             TITLE 29--LABOR

 

         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

 

PART 785_HOURS WORKED--Table of Contents

 

                   Subpart C_Application of Principles

 

Sec.  785.34  Effect of section 4 of the Portal-to-Portal Act.



    The Portal Act provides in section 4(a) that except as provided in 

subsection (b) no employer shall be liable for the failure to pay the 

minimum wage or overtime compensation for time spent in ``walking, 

riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the 

principal activity or activities which such employee is employed to 

perform either prior to the time on any particular workday at which such 

employee commences, or subsequent to the time on any particular workday 

at which he ceases, such principal activity or activities.'' Subsection 

(b) provides that the employer shall not be relieved from liability if 

the activity is compensable by express contract or by custom or practice 

not inconsistent with an express contract. Thus traveltime at the 

commencement or cessation of the workday which was originally considered 

as working time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (such as underground 

travel in mines or walking from time clock to work-bench) need not be 

counted as working time unless it is compensable by contract, custom or 

practice. If compensable by express contract or by custom or practice 

not inconsistent with an express contract, such traveltime must be 

counted in computing hours worked. However, ordinary travel from home to 

work (see Sec.  785.35) need not be counted as hours worked even if the 

employer agrees to pay for it. (See Tennessee Coal, Iron & RR. Co. v. 

Musecoda Local, 321 U.S. 590 (1946); Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery 

Co., 328 U.S. 690 (1946); Walling v. Anaconda Copper Mining Co., 66 F. 

Supp. 913 (D. Mont. (1946).)