11th Circuit digs into unusual travel time, unpaid lunch case

Employers frequently wonder when they must pay for an employee’s travel time or deduct time for an unpaid lunch. A recent decision from a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta (which has jurisdiction over Florida) found an employer couldn’t automatically deduct an hour for lunch, even when the employee was completely relieved from all duties. This answer, however, was due to the job in question and the unusual position on travel pay taken by the employer.

Facts

A group of 19 air security officers (ASOs) worked for AKAL Security, a government contractor that deports people who have been ordered removed from the United States. The detainees are flown on airplanes to their home countries. Since some people aren’t happy to be going home, the ASOs provided security during the flights.

For many of the assignments, the last leg was an “empty” return trip to Miami, where the ASOs were based. Since all detainees had been dropped off, the planes were empty, and the security officers had “free time” on the trips back to the base.

AKAL had a written policy, however, to deduct an hour’s pay for lunch on just the longer, empty return trips to Miami. The policy required all ASOs to disengage from work duties during the meal periods and use the time as they wished.