Leahy v. City of Chicago, Ill.

• Decision Date: 07 November 1996
• Docket Number: Nos. 95-2015,s. 95-2015
• Citation: 96 F.3d 228
• Parties: 132 Lab.Cas. P 33,431, 3 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 801 Daniel LEAHY, James Martinez, Michael D. Moore, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, Defendant-Appellee. to 95-2018.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 228

96 F.3d 228

132 Lab.Cas. P 33,431, 3 Wage & Hour Cas.2d

(BNA) 801

Daniel LEAHY, James Martinez, Michael D. Moore, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, Defendant-Appellee.

Nos. 95-2015 to 95-2018.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 11, 1996.

Decided Sept. 11, 1996.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied Nov.

7, 1996. ^*

Susan P. Malone, Chicago, IL, Perry M. Berke (argued), Baskin, Server, Berke, Weinstein & Spiro, Chicago, IL, for Daniel Leahy, James Martinez, Michael D. Moore, John Kaput, Robert McCann, William Kent, Alan Osborn, Terrence Clark, John Poulson, Roy Whitmore, Michael Brennan, Carolyn C. Burauer, James Scallon, Diane Kozlowski, Michael Nunez, Alfred Schultz, Stanley Sanders, Anne M. Cleary, David Koziol, Daniel Walczak in No.95-2015.

Kelly R. Welsh, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Chicago, IL, Mary L. Smith, Lawrence Rosenthal, Mardell Nereim (argued), Benna R. Solomon, Jennifer Naber, Kathryn Zeledon Nelson, Susan S. Sher, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Appeals Division, for City of Chicago in No. 95-2015.

Susan P. Malone, Chicago, IL, Perry M. Berke (argued), Burton I. Weinstein, Baskin, Server, Berke, Weinstein & Spiro, Chicago, IL, for Julie Alexander, Carmel G. Abbate, Bozeman Anderson, Luis Arroyo, Lonnie E. Alston, Richard Baranski, James B. Bauer, Richard Bednarek, Michael Berti, Jeremiah Barry, William A. Berth, Mark Borski, James M. Brady, Demerise Beilecki, Beverly M. Birch, George Brown, John Brusich, Dennis Brucato, Catherine Burkhart, Joseph Burkhart, Nadine Burke, Frances Camacho, Glenn Carlson, Patricia Carrosca, Brian Cheevers in No. 95-2016.

Kelly R. Welsh, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Chicago, IL, Lawrence Rosenthal, Mardell Nereim (argued), Benna R. Solomon, Jennifer Naber, Kathryn Zeledon Nelson, Susan S. Sher, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Appeals Division, for City of Chicago in No. 95-2016.

Susan P. Malone, Chicago, IL, Perry M. Berke (argued), Burton I. Weinstein, John R. Malkinson Baskin, Server, Berke, Weinstein & Spiro, Chicago, IL, for Juan Accosta, Jesse R. Acosta, Paul Abram, Erwin Acox, Christopher Adams, Alan Adamski, Arlene Adamson, Kathleen Aguinaga, Arthur Alaniz, Steward Alderson, Melvin Alexander, John R. Allanson, Lawrence Alonzo, Dennis Altobelle, Rosendo Alvarez, Luis Alverio, Luis Alvizu, Dan Anczer, Mark Andersen, Derek Anderson, John Anderson, Robert Anderson, Cynthia Anderson-Davis, Garth Angel, John Antos in No. 95-2017.

Kelly R. Welsh, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Chicago, IL, Lawrence Rosenthal, Benna R. Solomon, Mardell Nereim (argued), Jennifer Naber, Kathryn Zeledon Nelson, Susan S. Sher, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Appeals Division, for City of Chicago in No. 95-2017.

Susan P. Malone, Chicago, IL, Perry M. Berke (argued), Baskin, Server, Berke, Weinstein & Spiro, Chicago, IL, for Mark Akana, Carol Love-Adams, Helen Adams, Joseph Adams, III, Jerome L. Anderson, Alberto Albarran, John S. Allan, Wilbert Allen, Fernando Alonzo, Ann M. Alvear, Dino J. Amato, Katherine Ambrose, Joe Anderson, Michael D. Andruzzi, Robert P. Antol, Ross J. Anthos, Thomas W. Argenbright, Travis B. Armstead, Anita R. Ashton, Mary A. Bakutis, Robert L. Banksdale, Robert L. Barberio, Patrick W. Barker, Barry D. Baston, Ronald Beach in No. 95-2018.

Lawrence Rosenthal, Mardell, Nereim (argued), Susan S. Sher, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for City of Chicago in No. 95-2018.

Before BAUER, CUDAHY, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

BAUER, Circuit Judge.

Chicago police officers sued the City of Chicago, alleging violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219 ("FLSA"). The officers claimed various restrictions on their meal periods rendered those periods compensable work time under the FLSA. The district court initially dismissed the case, and we reversed and remanded for further development of the facts regarding the frequency and duration of interruptions during the meal periods. On remand, the district court granted the City's motion for summary judgment, finding that the officers' meal periods were not compensable work time under the FLSA. This time around we affirm, but on different grounds than the district court. ¹

Section 7(a) of the FLSA requires employers to pay overtime to employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek. 29 U.S.C. § 207(a). However, the FLSA allows public agencies engaged in law enforcement activities to calculate overtime for law enforcement personnel based on a 28 day work period rather than the standard seven day period. 29 U.S.C. § 207(k). Under section 7(k), the departments must pay overtime only when employees have "tours of duty which in the aggregate exceed" 171 hours in a 28 day period. 29 U.S.C. § 207(k)(1); 29 C.F.R. §§ 553.201(a), 553.230. The Chicago Police Department operates under section 7(k)'s exemption. Its officers work shifts of eight-and-one-half hours, which include one unpaid half-hour meal period. The crux of this lawsuit is whether the officers' half-hour meal period is work time which should count towards the 171 hour limit beyond which they must receive overtime pay. ² William Leahy and nineteen other current and former Chicago police officers initiated this action in state court in November 1989, claiming that the restrictions on their meal periods made those periods compensable work time under the FLSA. Those restrictions include: officers must receive permission from a dispatcher to take a meal period; officers must receive permission from a supervisor to leave their assigned districts during meal periods; officers must remain in uniform and comply with various rules governing conduct while in uniform; no more than two officers may congregate during a meal period without prior permission; officers in two-person units must take their meals at the same time; officers must be available to end their meals upon request; officers must respond to emergencies and requests for assistance by the public; and officers must be available by radio to the dispatcher.

The City moved for summary judgment on two grounds. First, the City contended that the Portal-to-Portal Act, 29 U.S.C. § 259, barred the suit because the police department had based its practice of excluding the half-hour meal periods from compensable work time on a good faith reliance on a Department of Labor Letter Ruling. Second, the City asserted that the collective bargaining agreement between the City and the police officers declared that the officers' meal periods are not compensable work time, and therefore served as a complete defense to the lawsuit. The district court rejected both grounds upon which the City based its motion, and instead granted summary judgment on the merits, finding that the restrictions on the officers and the interruptions during their meal periods did not make the meal periods compensable time under the FLSA. We review the district court's summary judgment determination de novo.

The plaintiffs argue that the district court improperly granted summary judgment on the merits because discovery was not complete on the issue of the frequency and duration of interruptions during officers' meal periods. The City concedes this, and therefore does not defend the district court's reasoning. Instead, the City justifies the grant of summary judgment on a ground the district court rejected--that the collective bargaining agreement between the City and the police officers satisfies the FLSA by providing that officers will receive overtime pay if they work a full eight hours and also work during their meal period. Both parties acknowledge that discovery was complete as to this issue. We agree that the collective bargaining agreement protects the plaintiffs' rights to overtime compensation under the FLSA, and affirm the grant of summary judgment on that basis. Flynn v. Sandahl, 58 F.3d 283, 289 (7th Cir.1995).

Collective Bargaining Agreement

The Fraternal Order of Police ("FOP") has acted as the collective bargaining representative of most Chicago police officers since 1979. During that time, the FOP and the City have entered into several collective bargaining agreements providing for fixed salaries for officers, as well as overtime pay at the rate of time-and-one-half for all hours worked in excess of eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. A memorandum of understanding attached to all of the collective bargaining agreements sets out certain benefits, including a half-hour meal period during each tour of duty. The collective bargaining agreements establish a grievance procedure for disputes about the interpretation or application of the agreement, and provide for arbitration before a neutral party for those disputes not resolved during the grievance procedures. It is undisputed that the FOP never has filed a grievance asserting that the uncompensated half-hour meal period constitutes a breach of the collective bargaining agreement.

Under the FLSA, employers and employees may make "reasonable provisions of contract [to guide] the computation of work hours where precisely accurate computation is difficult or impossible" See Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railway Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 321 U.S. 590, 603, 64 S.Ct. 698, 705, 88 L.Ed. 949 (1944). See also Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 136-37, 65 S.Ct. 161, 163, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944); Bowers v. Remington Rand, Inc., 159 F.2d 114, 116 (7th Cir.1946), cert. denied, 330 U.S. 843, 67 S.Ct. 1083, 91 L.Ed. 1288 (1947). This means that employers and employees may resolve whether certain activity is "work" through a collective bargaining agreement, as long as the agreement comports with the FLSA. See Beaston v. Scotland Sch. for Veterans' Children, 693 F.Supp. 234, 239 (M.D.Pa.1988), aff'd, 869 F.2d 587 (3d Cir.1989). Here, if the collective bargaining agreement's guarantee of overtime compensation for time...