## Facts

- Jerry S. Davis worked for Food Lion, Inc. as a meat market manager from January 1981 to August 1983 in North Carolina and Virginia.
- Davis was an hourly employee required to record time on a time card at the beginning and end of each workday.
- Davis alleged he worked 1,414 overtime hours “off the clock” over roughly two and one-half years and sought unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
- Food Lion maintained a written, well-publicized policy prohibiting unrecorded (“off-the-clock”) work, with discipline ranging from verbal warnings to discharge; Davis knew of the policy.
- Management discovered Davis working off the clock on two occasions and issued verbal warnings; a supervisor also strongly reprimanded Davis once based on an incorrect belief he was working off the clock.
- Davis argued Food Lion’s “Effective Scheduling” system set unrealistic labor-hour allocations and created pressure to meet performance standards, leading him to work secretly off the clock to avoid discipline.
- Food Lion’s supervisors testified the scheduling standards could be met without off-the-clock work and that observed off-the-clock work was prohibited rather than encouraged.

## Issues

1. Whether an employee seeking unpaid overtime under the FLSA must prove the employer had actual or constructive knowledge of the alleged overtime work.
2. Whether the district court clearly erred in finding Food Lion lacked actual or constructive knowledge of Davis’s alleged off-the-clock overtime.

## Decision

- The Fourth Circuit affirmed judgment for Food Lion after a bench trial.
- The court held employer actual or constructive knowledge of overtime work is a required element of an FLSA overtime claim.
- The court held the district court did not clearly err in finding Food Lion lacked actual or constructive knowledge of Davis’s claimed off-the-clock hours.

## Legal Principles

- FLSA overtime liability for hours worked turns on whether the employer “suffer[s] or permit[s]” the work, which requires actual or constructive employer knowledge.
- An employee cannot recover for unrecorded overtime absent proof the employer knew or should have known the overtime was being worked.
- A well-publicized and enforced prohibition on off-the-clock work, including discipline when discovered, supports a finding that the employer did not “suffer or permit” uncompensated overtime.
- Appellate review of a trial court’s factual findings on employer knowledge in an FLSA case is for clear error under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a).

## Conclusion

The Fourth Circuit held that an FLSA plaintiff alleging unpaid off-the-clock overtime must prove the employer knew or should have known of the overtime work, and it affirmed because the trial court plausibly found Food Lion lacked actual or constructive knowledge given its timekeeping requirements and enforcement of a policy barring unrecorded work.


Davis v. Food Lion, Inc., 792 F.2d 1274 (4th Cir. 1986)