[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: 29CFR785.7]



[Page 643]

 

                             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 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.