Turner v. City of Philadelphia
| Decision Date | 31 July 2001 |
| Docket Number | CARR-PULLEN,No. 00-1519,MIDDLETON-BRYANT,SMITH-SHELTON,HAMES-SMITH,00-1519 |
| Parties | (3rd Cir. 2001) WILLIAM TURNER; YVONNE RUFFIN; JAMES OECHSLE; GLADYS WOODARD; GEORGE AALBREGTSE; CALVIN AKERS; ROBERT ALBRIGHT; BARRY AMOS; KEVIN ANDERSON; ELLIOTT BAILEY; TYRONE BANKS; WILLIAM BAUER; WILSON BECKWITH, JR.; VITO BENDZIUS; DEBORAH BLACKMAN; GLENDA BLAKE; LORETTA BLAKE; BERTRAND BLIER, SR.; JOSEPH BLOCKER; MARY BONETT; JAMES BOSTON; CHARLES BOTTOMS; CAROLYN BOYCE; FABIAN BRINSON; VICTOR BROWN; WILLIAM BRYANT; RALPH BURTON; CARL BURWELL; VALERIA; JULIE I. CARTER; SHEILA CATLETT; BARBARA CHAVIS; RODNEY CHRISTIAN; RONALD CIAVARDONE; EDWARD CLARK; DONNA COLLIER; RICHARD CONGELOSI; EILEEN COOK; JAMES COOPER; GENEVIEVE CORBI; JOSEPH COUSER; EDWARD CRUMP; CLEMON DAVIS; CORNELIA DAVIS; GLEN DAVIS; NATHANIEL DAVIS; HERMINIO DELGADO; TERESA DIXON; ELIZABETH DONNELLY; JOHN DONNELLY; SHAWN DONNELLY; GLORIA DOUGHTY; FREDERICK DRAKE; KEITH T. DRAKE; RICARDO DRUMMOND; TIMOTHY DUFFY; DIANA DUKES; FAY EARLY; CARLOS FELICIANO; ANTHONY FISHER; CHRISTINE FOWLER; RALPH FOXWORTH; SYBIL FREEMAN; RICHARD FRENCH; MICHAEL FULLER; JOSEPH FURNESS; JOHN GALLAGHER; RICHARD GALLOWAY; LUCINDA GIBBONS; VICTOR GILL; JOAN GOLDBERG; MICHAEL GOODMAN; LISA GOODS; DEMETRIA GORDAN; JOHN GREEN; RUTH GREEN; RONNIE HAAS; NADA HALL; TRACI HALL; ROBIN; JULIA HAMILTON; CHARLES HAMMOND; CHARLES HARLEY; JACQUELINE HARRISON; EILEEN HARVEY; SHARON HATCHER; PATRICK HENDERSON; SEAN HENDERSON; ELIZABETH HENRY; TRACI HERDER; BURNIE HILL; WILLETTE HILL; GAIL HOLLAND; JACQUELINE HOLLOWAY; STANLEY HOLMES; TRUEMANNA HOWLAND; WILLIAM HUBER; MARY HULL; GERALDINE HUNTER; RONALD HUNTER; MICHAEL INNAMORATO; GLORIA JACKSON; GLORIA JEFFCOAT EDWARDS; ESTELLE JENKINS; GENEVA JOHNSON; HELENE JOHNSON; MELVIN JOHNSON; SAMUEL JOHNSON; ARLETHA JONES; BERTHA JONES; ERNEST JONES; MARGARET JONES; LORNA KAPLAN; THOMAS KEYS; THEODORE KRAUS; JOYCE LAUGHINGHOUSE; TYRA LAWS; WILLIAM E. LAWTON; KEVIN LEE; JOHN LEWIS, SR.; PATRICIA LEWIS; WILLIAM LOGAN; MICHAEL LONG; JOSE LOPEZ; EUGENE LOVE; CHARLES LUBICKY, JR.; ANTHONY LUCAS; ARTH |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
On Appeal From the United States District Court For the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civ. No. 98-cv-02990) District Judge: Honorable Jay C. Waldman
Robert Goggin, Esquire William L. Keller & Associates, P.C. 1528 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 Walter Weir, Jr., Esquire Richard P. Coe, Jr., Esquire (argued) Weir & Partners, Llp 1339 Chestnut Street Suite 500, The Widener Building Philadelphia, PA 19107 Counsel for Appellants
Mark J. Foley, Esquire Raymond A. Kresge, Esquire (argued) George A. Voegele, Jr., Esquire Klett, Rooney, Lieber & Schorling, P.C. Two Logan Square, 12th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19103-2756 Counsel for Appellees
Before: Becker, Chief Judge, McKEE, and Weis, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from an order of the District Court granting summary judgment for the defendants in a class action suit brought by over 200 current and former corrections officers against the City of Philadelphia and the City Prisons Commissioner. The officers, seeking overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for the time they spent changing into and out of their uniforms, demand $1.4 million in overtime back pay for this change time, along with $1.4 million in liquidated damages, attorneys fees, and a court order requiring change time compensation in the future. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
The FLSA actually speaks directly to this issue. Under S 207(a)(1), employers must pay their employees an overtime wage for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week. See 29 U.S.C. S 207(a)(1). We assume arguendo, as plaintiffs would have us do, that clothes and uniform change time would ordinarily be included within hours worked.1 Section 203(o), however, provides a specific exclusion from the calculation of hours worked for clothes and uniform change time:
Hours Worked.--In determining for the purposes of sections 206 and 207 of this title the hours for which an employee is employed, there shall be excluded any time spent in changing clothes or washing at the beginning or end of each workday which was excluded from measured working time during the week involved by the express terms of or by custom or practice under a bona fide collective-bargaining agreement applicable to the particular employee.
29 U.S.C. S 203(o). The express terms of the relevant collective bargaining agreement in this case do not mention an exclusion of change time from hours worked. The dispositive issue, therefore, is whether there is a"custom or practice under a bona fide collective-bargaining agreement" in the Philadelphia corrections system of excluding change time from compensable hours worked.
Because this is an appeal from the grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, in order to succeed on appeal plaintiffs need to demonstrate that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether such a"custom or practice under a bona fide collective-bargaining agreement" exists. Judge Waldman, the author of the District Court's opinion, did not think such a genuine issue was created, in light of the following uncontroverted facts:
(1) The City of Philadelphia has not compensated corrections officers for change time for over 30 years.
(2) Every collective bargaining agreement between the City of Philadelphia and the corrections officers' union --the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, Local 159B--has been silent as to compensation for uniform change time.
(3) William Turner, one of the lead plaintiffs, served for some time as the union's president. During his tenure (between June 1994 and June 1997), he proposed at several labor management meetings with the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Prisons, and with Philadelphia's Labor Relations Administrator, that change time be made compensable. However, the union did not make this request in formal collective bargaining negotiations. At the same time, the union did ask for and receive a uniform maintenance allowance and overtime compensation for the one hour per week that corrections officers spent at mandatory pre-shift roll calls.
(4) The union never filed a grievance or demanded arbitration based on the non-compensability of change time.
According to Judge Waldman, corrections officers' acquiescence to not being compensated for change time can constitute a "custom or practice under a bona fide collective-bargaining agreement" for purposes ofS 203(o). See Turner v. City of Philadelphia, 96 F. Supp. 2d 460, 461-62 (E.D. Pa. 2000). Judge Waldman believed that the uncontroverted facts listed above sufficed to establish acquiescence on the officers' part. Consequently, he concluded that...
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