## Facts

- The plaintiffs were current or former Assistant Urban Park Rangers employed by New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation.
- AUPRs performed public-facing, law-enforcement-type duties in parks, including assisting the public, issuing summonses, and making arrests.
- The City required AUPRs to wear a prescribed uniform consisting of professional clothing and protective/utility equipment, including a bulletproof vest and a utility belt holding items such as handcuffs, mace, a radio, a flashlight, gloves, and a baton.
- The City did not pay AUPRs for time spent putting on and taking off the required uniform.
- The donning and doffing time was alleged to take approximately five to thirty minutes per day.
- Plaintiffs brought a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act seeking unpaid wages for this time as compensable work.

## Issues

1. Whether, as a matter of law, AUPRs’ time spent donning and doffing required uniforms was noncompensable because it was not “integral and indispensable” to their principal activities under the FLSA and the Portal-to-Portal Act.
2. If donning and doffing could be compensable, whether the time was nevertheless noncompensable under the de minimis doctrine.
3. Whether a collective bargaining agreement or other defenses barred or limited compensation for the donning and doffing time.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit vacated the district court’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings.
- The court held that, on the record, it could not conclude as a matter of law that donning and doffing the required uniform was not integral and indispensable to AUPRs’ principal activities.
- The court directed the district court on remand to address in the first instance whether any donning/doffing time was noncompensable under the de minimis doctrine or under a collective bargaining agreement, and to consider other unresolved defenses and summary-judgment arguments.
- The court indicated that, absent complete disposition on remand, the case should proceed to trial.

## Legal Principles

- Under the FLSA, as modified by the Portal-to-Portal Act, preliminary and postliminary activities are generally noncompensable unless they are integral and indispensable to an employee’s principal activities.
- An activity is “integral and indispensable” when it is an intrinsic element of the principal work and one the employee cannot dispense with in performing that work.
- Summary judgment is improper where the record permits a reasonable factfinder to conclude that required gear or clothing is integral to safe and effective performance of principal duties.
- Even if an activity is otherwise compensable, compensation may still be limited or barred by doctrines such as de minimis time, collective bargaining agreement provisions, and other statutory defenses (including limitations defenses), depending on the facts and governing terms.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit set aside summary judgment because the record did not permit a categorical ruling that AUPRs’ required uniform donning and doffing was noncompensable, and it returned the case for the district court to evaluate de minimis, collective-bargaining, and other defenses and, if necessary, proceed to trial.


Perez v. City of New York, 832 F.3d 120 (2d Cir. 2016)