Second Circuit Addresses Off-The-Clock Work

In Perry et al. v. City of New York, the Second Circuit upheld a large jury verdict in favor of a collective of workers regarding off-the-clock work. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed the principle that employers will ordinarily not be liable under the FLSA when employees fail to follow a reasonable process to report time worked.

Many wage-and-hour lawsuits involve "off-the-clock" claims—allegations that employees performed work outside of their recorded working hours for which they were not compensated. One issue that often arises in such cases is whether the employer is liable for work not recorded by employees in the timekeeping system.

In Perry v. City of New York, a certified collective of 2,519 EMTs and paramedics for the New York City Fire Department sued under the FLSA, contending that they were not compensated for all overtime worked because their various pre- and post-shift activities was not counted as time worked. After a rare collective action