Armitage v. City of Emporia, Kan.

782 F. Supp. 537, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1232, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1343, 1992 WL 18778
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedJanuary 2, 1992
Docket90-1222-K
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 782 F. Supp. 537 (Armitage v. City of Emporia, Kan.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Armitage v. City of Emporia, Kan., 782 F. Supp. 537, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1232, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1343, 1992 WL 18778 (D. Kan. 1992).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

PATRICK F. KELLY, District Judge.

This matter is before the court for decision following a bench trial held on October 15 and 16, 1991.

The plaintiffs in this case are present and former detectives in the investigations section of the City of Emporia Police Department. The plaintiffs contend the defendant, the City of Emporia (City), violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., by failing to compensate them for lunch periods and for time spent while on call.

Plaintiffs seek declaratory judgment, compensation and liquidated damages for the unpaid lunch periods and time spent while designated the on-call detective. In addition, plaintiffs assert the City’s violation of the FLSA was willful, thereby expanding the applicable statute of limitations from two years to three years. 29 U.S.C. § 255(a). The City contends it did not violate the FLSA, willfully or otherwise, because the detectives were not on *539 duty during the lunch periods or while they held on-call status.

At the conclusion of the bench trial, the court directed the parties to prepare and submit suggested findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court heard oral argument on the parties’ suggested findings of fact and conclusions of law on December 16, 1991. After hearing the oral arguments, the court announced its decision, finding that the City had violated the FLSA. The court also announced that it found the violations willful, thereby extending the statute of limitations from two years to three years. Finally, the court announced its decision to award liquidated damages.

Upon a more thorough examination of the facts and issues, the court now modifies its findings and conclusions announced at the December 16, 1991 hearing. As more thoroughly set forth herein, the court finds that the City violated the FLSA in failing to compensate the plaintiffs for lunch periods worked and time spent on standby status, contrary to 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. However, for reasons set forth herein, the court finds that the City did not willfully violate the FLSA, and thereby does not extend the statute of limitations. Finally, the court finds that liquidated damages are mandated.

Findings of Fact

The plaintiffs are six current or former detectives employed by the City of Emporia Police Department. The parties have stipulated that although there was evidence presented regarding unpaid lunch periods when a plaintiff worked through lunch and regarding telephone calls when on call for which no compensation was received, no claim is made for those individual instances.

The terms of the plaintiffs’ employment were subject to written rules, regulations and policies codified in the Personnel Regulations, the Employees’ Handbook and an Operations Manual for the Police Department. (Pltfs.’ Exs. 4, 5 & 6.) In addition, the detectives were subject to certain unwritten, informal rules enforced by the detectives’ supervisors.

Prior to January 1, 1987, the detective section of the police department worked an 8-hour shift with a 30-minute paid lunch period. In 1987, the detective work schedule changed to a 9-hour shift with a 1-hour unpaid lunch period. (Pltfs.’ Ex. 3.) Subsequently, on March 22, 1987, a “flex-time” plan was implemented to schedule the work shifts of the detective section. (Joint Ex. 12.) Under the flex-time plan, a detective was required to work an 8-hour shift between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., with a 30-minute unpaid lunch period, not to be the first half hour or the last half hour of the shift. Longer lunch periods were allowed depending on the individual schedule of the detective. The purpose of the flex-time plan was to increase the availability of the detective unit after 3:00 p.m., provide the individual detective with a choice of hours, and reduce the amount of overtime generated at the end of a shift. (Fair Depo.)

Under the flex-time plan, detectives scheduled their lunch periods on a board in the secretary’s office where they signed out when leaving the office. Detectives were authorized to use city vehicles when going to lunch but were not to use the vehicles for personal errands. When detectives elected to use a city vehicle during the lunch period, they were required to notify the dispatcher of their location when they arrived at their destination and at the conclusion of the lunch period. Travel time in a city vehicle was not considered part of the lunch period. The detectives believed they were on duty during the lunch period and carried portable radios with them or went to a location with a telephone during the lunch period.

As a practical matter, the detectives remained in uniform during the lunch period with a sport coat covering their firearm. The detectives were subject to being called back to active duty during their lunch periods, and in a limited number of cases were actually called by the police dispatcher to respond to duty. Detectives were expected to respond to crimes or accidents committed in their presence and were required to *540 respond appropriately to citizen complaints or inquiries. In addition, the detectives were not allowed to consume alcohol while on their lunch breaks. Although a longer lunch period was allowed under the flextime program, prior approval by the supervisor was required and detectives generally limited their breaks to 30 minutes. Thus, detectives who elected to take a 30-minute lunch break were effectively limited to the Emporia area. Finally, evidence was presented which indicated the plaintiffs worked through their lunch periods on numerous occasions but did not receive compensation for the overtime, although an overtime request was made to the supervisor.

On April 30, 1990, the flex-time plan was abolished and detectives were scheduled to work 8-hour shifts including 30-minute paid lunch periods. (Pltfs.’ Ex. 19.)

In addition to working their regularly scheduled shifts, the detectives were required to serve as a standby detective for one week out of every six. At the beginning of each year, a standby schedule and order of rotation was posted for the entire calendar year. A detective was on standby from 8:00 a.m. Monday to 8:00 a.m. the following Monday. When a detective was on standby, he was required to work the late shift and was the first one to be called in the event no detective was at work and one was needed.

The standby detective was paid $30.00 per week for standing by. In addition, whenever the detective was actually called to work, he was paid at time and one half his regular rate of pay for all the time actually worked, beginning with the time of the call. The detectives were not compensated for time on standby when they received calls but were not actually required to respond. The standby detective was actually called out to respond to duty an average of .27 times per day or 1.89 times per week.

The standby detective was provided a pager so that he could be contacted by the police dispatcher if the need arose.

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Bluebook (online)
782 F. Supp. 537, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1232, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1343, 1992 WL 18778, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/armitage-v-city-of-emporia-kan-ksd-1992.