FLSA Vague Language
I’m curious if my commute falls under compensable time.
getting to the point. me And few co-workers were going over the fair labor standards act, we noticed that ordinary commute is not paid. However our commute, we feel, is not ordinary and should count as work.
for context, this is In NYC. The company has 200 technicians. 5 of which have a truck. everyone outside of those 5 technicians has a “rolling cart” which is a 40-50 pound tool bag, owned by the employer, that we are required to bring on public transportation And it has restricted use pesticides in it. I understand that in any other area of the county, where driving to work Is the norm, a 50lb tool bag is normal. However, we have rolling carts for the sole purpose of being faster on foot in nyc. company policy also bans use of a personal vehicle. so we are carrying the bag up and down stairs, lifting it through turnstiles, being delayed because we can fit ourselves on the train but with our tool bag we can not fit, so we have to wait 2-3 trains before we have enough space.
Not to mention the tool cart severely restricts our ability to do anything other than go home and drop it off After work. legally the bag must be in our sight at all times, due to pesticide laws, and we can’t exactly run errands with the tool bag as it’s not practical.
with the language in FLSA being extremely vague on this, we’re wondering what qualifies as transporting special equipment, and at what point is this for the benefit of the employer. as it surely doesn’t benefit any of the employees, it actually on average adds 20 minutes to our commute, and saves the employer money on storage and hours that would need to be paid for picking the bag up from storage and then traveling to the first job.
also just to be clear, I do see how and why this wouldn’t be compensable hours in 99% of the country. however NY is a unique city with public transportation being faster then driving, this seems to be a unique situation that would mainly apply to us. it also forces us to do manual labor on our commute to and from work and severely limits our autonomy after work.
second question. if the vague language can be interpreted to mean our commute is paid, how do we go about setting the record straight and or fighting for the pay?
tldr: Does our commute qualify to paid under FLSA and how do we get it recognized if it is compensable.