The Obama DOJ has filed a Supreme Court Amicus Brief asking it to reverse a Ninth District Court of Appeals ruling. The Appeals Court said Amazon warehouse employees forced to wait 25 minutes or more before exiting their work site, in long lines to see if they stole anything, is time for which they should be compensated for by Amazon.  The Obama DOJ disagrees.

The DOJ argument is hourly workers need not be paid for time spent doing tasks mandated by the corporation if that time is (DOJ Amicus Brief page 10):

NOT INTEGRAL AND INDISPENSABLE TO THE WORK PERFORMED BY ITS WAREHOUSE EMPLOYEES AND WERE THEREFORE NONCOMPENSABLE

The 9th ruled that although the time spent going through security lines was not "indispensable to the work" of the employee, it was done solely at the requirement and for the benefit of the employer, Amazon and should be compensated time.

It is fairly clear to me that once an hourly employee clocks off work they should walk out the door with no further demands on their time by the employer.

The Obama administration, "defender of the low wage worker" disagrees. Perhaps because billions of Wall Street dollars would be going to Main Street in the form of back pay to low wage workers..... Senator Elizabeth Warren is right, The game is rigged.

Huffington Post:

The brief has put the White House in an unusual position in the Busk case -- it is standing alongside the Chamber of Commerce and the retail lobby and against the AFL-CIO labor federation.

The White House declined to comment on the brief. According to Schnapper, the impact of the Supreme Court case could go well beyond Amazon's distribution workforce. Depending on how broad the ruling is, a decision against Busk could essentially lead to more off-the-clock work, he said....

"You could be told at the end of your shift....to go close the windows and take out the trash," he said. "There are lots of things they could have you do and save money by doing that … It would mean pay cuts for a lot of people."

As you might suspect, the Supreme Court is leaning towards protecting corporations profits at the expense of workers.

Since the Obama administration must know the Supreme Court will surely rule against the hourly workers, maybe someone can postulate why the piling on to reverse the 9th Circuit ruling?

SOP, Standard Operating Procedure, support Wall Street, they have the big campaign money?

Revolving door pandering, on hopes of getting higher pay later on Wall Street??

The signers of the BRIEF FOR THE UNITED STATES AS AMICUS CURIAE SUPPORTING PETITIONER:

M. PATRICIA SMITH
Solicitor of Labor
JENNIFER S. BRAND
Associate Solicitor
PAUL L. FRIEDEN
Counsel for Appellate
Litigation
DIANE A. HEIM
Senior Attorney
Department of Labor
DONALD B. VERRILLI, JR.
Solicitor General
EDWIN S. KNEEDLER
Deputy Solicitor General
CURTIS E. GANNON
Assistant to the Solicitor
General