Timecards Not Sufficient To Put Employer On Notice of Employee Clocking In Early To Work

In an interesting decision this week from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the court held that an Indiana manufacturer was not required to pay an employee for pre-shift overtime work done before the start of her shift, even though she was clocking in early on her timecards.  The appellate court held that the employer “neither knew nor should have known” that the employee was performing overtime work for the company despite recording her time worked on the time cards the company used to calculate her pay.  The reason the employer escaped liability: the employee’s supervisors (actually officers of the company) never personally saw her working prior to her scheduled start time because they arrived hours later; the employee never complained to her supervisors or otherwise that her paychecks did not include the overtime pay; and finally, there was overwhelming evidence that most employees clocked in early to socialize rather than work and the employer had no reason to believe the employee was doing anything differently.  The court recognized that “the FLSA stops short of requiring the employer to pay for work it did not know about, and had no reason to know about.”  Kellar v. Summit Seating, Inc., No. 11-1221 (7th Cir. Dec. 14, 2011).