Brock v. Two "R" Drilling Co.

789 F.2d 1177, 27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1254, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 26140
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMay 19, 1986
DocketNo. 84-3236
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 789 F.2d 1177 (Brock v. Two "R" Drilling Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brock v. Two "R" Drilling Co., 789 F.2d 1177, 27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1254, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 26140 (5th Cir. 1986).

Opinion

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

(Opinion October 7, 1985, 5 Cir., 1985, 772 F.2d 1199)

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

The government in its petition for rehearing attacks our prior holding, by a divided panel, 772 F.2d 1199 (5th Cir.1985), that the bonus payments in issue were overtime compensation and hence excluda-ble from the employees’ regular rate of pay for purposes of computing the minimum required overtime premium under section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. § 207.

On reconsideration, concluding that the government’s argument in this respect has merit and that the prior contrary determination of the panel majority was in error, we withdraw our previous holding on this point and grant the government’s petition [1179]*1179for rehearing to the extent hereinafter set out.

The stipulated facts show that the employees’ regular schedule called for an eighty-four-hour workweek (seven consecutive twelve-hour days) on the drilling barges, alternating with a week of shore leave. The first forty hours worked in the week were compensated at a “straight time” rate in excess of the FLSA minimum wage. Work in excess of forty hours per week — the applicable weekly “maximum” under section 207(a) — was compensated at time and a half the “straight time” rate. In each workweek, the employees were also credited with three hours for travel to and from the drilling rig and dock, which was considered working time and was compensated at time and a half the straight time hourly rate.1 For those employees who completed the entire eighty-four-hour workweek, a bonus was paid in an amount equal to one and a half times the employees’ straight time rate multiplied by ten. This bonus, however, was dependent not only on working forty-four (or forty-seven, including “travel”) hours overtime, but also on meeting the following four additional conditions: (1) reporting to the “showup” dock on time for transportation to the drilling barge; (2) arriving in proper physical and mental condition to perform the work assigned; (3) assembling the attire and personal effects necessary for a seven-day tour; and (4) remaining on the drilling barge between the twelve-hour shifts. Although the bonus was never payable unless substantial overtime was worked, because of the presence of the above-stated four additional conditions, not of themselves related to the performance of overtime, we cannot say that the bonus was entirely for overtime under section 207(e)(5). Cf. Walling v. Hamischfeger Corporation, 325 U.S. 427, 432, 65 S.Ct. 1246, 1249, 89 L.Ed. 1711 (1945) (“where the facts do not permit it, we cannot arbitrarily divide bonuses ... into regular and overtime segments”). No such nonovertime-related conditions were present in Brennan v. Valley Towing Co., Inc., 515 F.2d 100 (9th Cir.1975), cited in our original opinion. The defense that the bonus was an overtime premium is rejected.

We agree with the district court’s rejection of the defense asserted under section 7(e)(3)(a) of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. § 207(e)(3)(a), and under section 4(a)(2) of the Portal to Portal Act, 29 U.S.C. § 254(a)(2).

Defendants’ remaining defense is grounded on the “percentage” bonus rule. Under that concept, the payment of a bonus calculated as a percentage of the employee’s total wages for the period in reference to which the bonus is paid, generally does not require recomputation of the “regular” rate of pay for purposes of section 207(a) because the bonus is deemed to increase the straight time pay and the overtime pay by the same percentage, thus not altering the ratio between them. As Judge Learned Hand stated in Siomkin v. Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corp., 174 F.2d 289 (2nd Cir.1949):

“A bonus which varies in proportion to ‘total earnings,’ varies in proportion to the sum of the straight time payments and the overtime payments, and a percentage of an aggregate is ordinarily computed upon every unit of the aggregate, unless some other purpose appears. It would be purely gratuitous to apply the percentage to ‘total earnings’ over a period upon each dollar of straight time, but upon only sixty-seven cents of each dollar of overtime.
“... A percentage paid upon current earnings ... has the same effect, as between employee and employer, as though it was added to each unit of pay, the unit and a half earned for overtime as well as the unit earned for straight time; and it ought to be deemed the equivalent of an increment to each of the units for current work.” Id. at 292-94.

See also Adams v. Macklin Co., 69 F.Supp. 262 (E.D.Mich.1946), aff'd sub nom. DeWa-[1180]*1180ters v. Macklin Co., 167 F.2d 694 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 335 U.S. 824, 69 S.Ct. 48, 93 L.Ed. 379 (1948). The regulations also give some recognition to the percentage bonus concept. See 29 C.F.R. §§ 778.210, 778.-503.2

The government contends that the percentage bonus rule cannot be applied because the bonus was conditional. The mere fact that a percentage bonus is conditional seems irrelevant to reason that such bonuses have been held not to require re-computation of the “regular” rate, namely, that the relationship between the regular and the overtime rate is not thereby changed. Conditional percentage bonuses were upheld in Siomkin and Adams v. Macklin. We have found no contrary decisions. The government relies in this respect on the “if it is paid unconditionally” language in the first sentence of 29 C.F.R. § 778.503, which is set out in note 2, supra. However, this sentence purports to describe section 778.210, which contains no reference to unconditionality. A conditional bonus “based on a percentage of total wages,” no less than an unconditional one, “increases both straight time and overtime wages by the same percentage,” which is the rationale for the percentage bonus rule as stated in section 778.503.

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Bluebook (online)
789 F.2d 1177, 27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1254, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 26140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brock-v-two-r-drilling-co-ca5-1986.