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MenoParkFireA 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in an action brought by California firefighters and emergency medical personnel under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Applying Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, 135 S.Ct. 513 (2014), the panel held that the plaintiffs were not entitled to overtime for taking their gear to temporary duty stations because this activity was not integral and indispensable to the principal activities the plaintiffs were employed to perform and therefore was “preliminary” or “postliminary” under the FLSA as amended by the Portal-to-Portal Act.

The panel also held that the Menlo Park Fire Protection District did not violate the FLSA by excluding money paid for leave buybacks from the plaintiffs’ “regular rate” of pay, which was used to calculate overtime.

The case is Balestrieri v. Menlo Park Fire Prot. Dist. (9th Cir. 12-15975 9/4/15) FLSA/Overtime and Leave Buy Back http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2015/09/04/12-15975.pdf

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