Employee Who Works At Home Need Not Be Compensated for Time Spent Commuting to and from Other Worksites

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York has held that the “continuous workday” rule does not mean that time spent commuting to and from a home office to a worksite is compensable. Kuebel v. Black & Decker, No. 10-2273 (2d Cir. May 5, 2011).

Under the “continuous workday” rule, time spent traveling after the workday has begun is compensable, but time spent commuting from home to and from work is not. In this case, the employee was a “retail specialist” who worked from his home office and often commuted to six different stores as well, from his home. Kuebel sued his employer, Black & Decker (B&D), claiming that all time spent commuting to the first and from the last work assignment of the day was compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law under the “continuous workday” rule. He argued that his workday began when he checked e-mail, voicemail, and performed other tasks at home before traveling to a store, and that the workday did not end until he completed work-related tasks after he returned home at the end of the day.

The District Court ruled in favor of B&D and the Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. According to the Court of Appeals, under the FLSA ordinary home-to-job-site travel is not compensable, even if an employee performs minor administrative tasks immediately before leaving home, or immediately after returning home, where those tasks were not required to be performed at those times. Employers should review this rule with employees who work from home and also travel to the main office regularly.