In the

United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ 

Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

ARMANDO CHAGOYA, et al., 

Plaintiffs-Appellants, 

and

ROBERT BARTLETT, et al., 

Plaintiffs-Appellants, 

v.

CITY OF CHICAGO, 

Defendant-Appellee. 

____________________ 

Appeals from the United States District Court for the

Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

Nos. 18-cv-6468 & 14-cv-7225 — Charles P. Kocoras, Judge. 

____________________ 

ARGUED OCTOBER 28, 2020 — DECIDED MARCH 25, 2021 

____________________ 

Before RIPPLE, WOOD, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges. 

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge. Current and former members of the 

Chicago Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics 
2 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

(“SWAT”) Unit brought actions1 on behalf of themselves and 

similarly situated SWAT operators

2 against their employer, 

the City of Chicago (“the City”). They alleged violations of 

the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), 

the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (“IMWL”), 820 ILCS 105/1 

et seq., and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act 

(“IWPCA”), 820 ILCS 115/1 et seq. 

In their complaint, the operators related that when they 

take their SWAT equipment home, they must store some of 

that equipment inside their residences; it cannot be left in 

their vehicles. The operators sought compensation for the 

off-duty time required to transport, load, unload, and store

their gear inside of their residences. 

The City moved for summary judgment on all claims, 

1 This is a consolidated appeal of Bartlett, et al. v. City of Chicago, 

14-cv-07225 (N.D. Ill.), and Chagoya, et al. v. City of Chicago, 18-cv-06468

(N.D. Ill.). The Bartlett plaintiffs filed suit on September 16, 2014, seeking 

compensation for time spent commuting between home and work, and 

time spent loading, unloading, and securing their equipment inside their 

homes. In 2018, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. 

While the Bartlett summary judgment motions were pending, the Chagoya plaintiffs filed their complaint alleging identical claims on September 

21, 2018. Due to the relatedness of the two cases, Chagoya was reassigned 

to the judge who had been presiding over the Bartlett litigation. On October 1, 2019, the district court granted summary judgment to the City on 

all of the plaintiffs’ claims in Bartlett. Because Chagoya presented identical 

claims, the district court also entered an order terminating Chagoya. 

2 “Operators” is a term employed by the Chicago Police Department for 

police officers with the rank of patrolman who are members of the 

SWAT Unit. Throughout this opinion, we will refer to them as “operators” and as “officers.”
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 3

and the operators filed cross-motions for summary judgment on the FLSA and IMWL claims. The district court 

granted summary judgment in favor of the City, and the operators filed a timely appeal.3 We now hold that the district 

court correctly determined that the activity of transporting, 

loading and unloading equipment to and from residences, 

and securing equipment inside residences is not integral and 

indispensable to the operators’ principal activity. We therefore affirm the judgments of the district court. 

I 

BACKGROUND

A.

The plaintiffs are current and former officers assigned to 

the Chicago Police Department’s SWAT Unit. The SWAT 

Unit became a full-time unit of the Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) in 2005 and is based at the Homan Square facility on the west side of Chicago. The SWAT Unit consists of 

a Commanding Officer, an Assistant Commanding Officer, 

supervisors, operators, and support personnel. The Commanding Officer reports directly to the CPD’s Deputy Chief 

of Special Functions. The SWAT Unit is organized into four 

squads of operators; each squad is supervised by at least one 

sergeant. 

The SWAT Unit’s mission is a special and dangerous one. 

It provides a tactical response to critical incidents beyond the 

capabilities of normal police response, such as hostage situa3 The jurisdiction of the district court is premised on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 

1337, 1367. Our jurisdiction is secure under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
4 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

tions, barricaded or suicidal subjects, sniper or active shooter 

situations, and terrorism-related incidents. SWAT operators 

therefore must carry specialized gear and weaponry. Their 

equipment includes ballistic entry vests, a radio, headset, gas 

mask, night-vision goggles, helmet, a Glock 9mm handgun, 

and an M4 carbine rifle. Some SWAT operators perform 

unique roles, such as sniper, breacher, or medic, and must 

carry additional gear to perform these duties. 

The SWAT Unit maintains a rotation schedule. Two 

squads are assigned to work in the Special Operations Response Time (“SORT”) cars, while the other two squads engage in training. Every two weeks, the squads switch assignments. While on a SORT-car cycle, an operator reports 

for duty at Homan Square at the beginning of the shift. Operators are first given fifteen minutes to transfer their weapons and gear into their assigned SORT car before reporting 

inside for roll call. Operators are also given at least fifteen 

minutes prior to the end of their shift to transfer and secure 

their weapons and gear out of their SORT cars. These transfers are considered “on the clock,” and the officers are compensated for the time expended on this transfer.

In the event of a critical incident, on-duty SWAT operators are the first called to respond. If additional operators are 

needed, an off-duty call-out occurs. Off-duty operators are 

contacted by phone and email. If an operator is available and 

willing to respond, the operator responds to the call-out. As 

soon as an off-duty operator agrees to respond, the operator 

is considered “on duty” and is compensated starting from 

the time of the off-duty call-out. This compensation covers 

the time spent loading equipment stored in the operator’s 

home to the operator’s vehicle, traveling to the incident site, 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 5

traveling back to Homan Square after the incident is resolved, and attending a debriefing session at Homan Square. 

Operators are also given an additional ninety minutes to two 

hours of overtime compensation to organize and clean their 

gear and weapons.

For the first several years of the SWAT Unit’s full-time 

existence, operators were not authorized to take their rifles 

home while off duty. Rather, they stored their rifles on a 

SWAT weapons truck, which was kept at the Homan Square 

facility. In late 2008 and early 2009, members of the SWAT 

Unit asked that operators be permitted to take their weapons 

home during off-duty hours. Post-incident reports in early 

2009 stated that “SWAT operators responding from home 

are currently not allowed to transport their rifles with 

them,” which “causes great delays in intelligence gathering 

and overwatch capabilities that is needed on all SWAT 

jobs.”4 Another memo indicated that SWAT operators responding from home in personal vehicles faced heavy 

rush-hour traffic, taking up to ninety minutes to respond. 

One proposed solution was to allow all SWAT operators to 

“have take-home cars with the ability to transport their rifles 

to and from work” as it “would reduce response time to a 

SWAT job to less than 60 minutes.”5 On March 16, 2009, the 

CPD issued Special Functions Group Unit Special Order 

09-01, which authorized and directed SWAT operators “to 

transport their Department issued carbines and/or sniper rifles to and from home ... to maintain a constant state of pre4 R.193-5 at 2.

5 Id. 
6 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

paredness and the ability to readily respond to critical incidents.”6 Special Order 09-01 prohibited operators who 

transport their rifles from storing their rifles in a personal or 

department vehicle at any time.

The parties dispute whether Special Order 09-01 required 

SWAT operators to take their rifles home or whether they 

still were allowed to keep their rifles at Homan Square. On 

April 1, 2009, Lieutenant Mark Marianovich7 sent out revised Standard Operating Procedures, which “mandate[d] 

that its members keep their equipment in a state of readiness 

to respond quickly to a critical incident.”8 The Standard Operating Procedures also detailed the off-hours vehicle use 

policies and procedures. CPD assigned and issued some vehicles for use beyond normal hours to give SWAT operators 

the ability to respond to off-hours critical incidents. The goal 

was for SWAT operators “to be able to respond to the scene 

of a critical incident within one hour of the callout.”9 Additionally, the policy placed restrictions on the use of the department vehicle. For example, the vehicles were only to be 

used for travel to and from work and for critical incident response from home; they were not to be used for personal or 

other family business. An April 2009 report observed that 

“[a]lthough many operators were responding to the job in 

6 R.193-8 at 1. 

7 The appellate briefs refer to Mr. Marianovich as “Captain.” In the text, 

we use the rank at the time of his deposition, “Lieutenant.” 

8 R.193-9 at 7.

9 Id. at 15. 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 7

their personal vehicles, they responded to the scene with 

their rifles and equipment already in their possession.”10

Additionally, the operators “did not have to wait until the 

trucks arrived on scene in order to quickly deploy to their 

positions.”11 

In December 2010, CPD issued all SWAT operators 

take-home vehicles. Lieutenant Raymond Hamilton instructed operators who were issued take-home vehicles to move 

their equipment kits and rifles to their assigned vehicles. 

With take-home vehicles, the operators were no longer authorized to store their personal equipment kits inside the 

equipment room or to leave their CPD rifles on the weapons 

truck unless the operator was on furlough or out of town. 

Sergeants had the responsibility to ensure strict adherence to 

these directives. Lieutenant Hamilton further reiterated that 

equipment must be secured and that weapons were never to 

be left in their vehicles while off duty.

If an operator wanted an exception to the prohibition 

against storing rifles on the weapons truck, the officer had to 

secure the permission of a lieutenant. Plaintiff Jesus Cano 

testified that Lieutenant Marianovich permitted him to store 

his rifle at Homan Square while off-duty because he had 

small children at home and did not have a safe in which to 

store his rifle. If Officer Cano responded to an off-duty 

call-out, he would meet the weapons truck at the incident 

site or first pick up his weapon directly from Homan Square. 

Lieutenant Tom Lamb testified that he was aware of officers 

10 R.193-11 at 1. 

11 Id. 
8 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

who stored their equipment at Homan Square and of at least 

five operators who stored their rifles on the weapons truck 

that went to each call-out. 

In March 2011, CPD headquarters recalled many department vehicles that it had assigned previously to SWAT 

officers, leaving the SWAT Unit with an insufficient number 

of vehicles to permit each officer to use one for commuting. 

This situation resurrected the issue of where operators relying on personal vehicles could store their gear and rifles. 

Lieutenant Lamb expressed concern that, without having 

their weapons and gear with them, operators would have to 

drive all the way to Homan Square to get their equipment 

before meeting at the incident site or would have to wait at 

the incident site until the weapons truck arrived with their 

rifles. On March 21, 2011, Lieutenant Lamb emailed the 

SWAT Unit:

No equipment will be stored in the SWAT 

cage, cleaning room, or equipment room. Per 

SOP each operator must have their [sic] 

equipment with them [sic] in a state of readiness. If an operator has reasonable issues with 

rifle storage then they [sic] may meet with Lt. 

Marianovich to discuss options. Please ensure 

that all bags are moved out of the cleaning 

room.

12

On May 2, 2016, Deputy Chief Steve Georgas reiterated 

the off-duty firearms and equipment policies. He stated that 

“[c]ontinuing past practice, SWAT members [we]re not re12 R.193-18.
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 9

quired to store [their equipment] ... in their personal residences,” were not required to transport their equipment to 

and from their personal residences and work, and storage 

lockers at Homan Square were provided to store their 

equipment while off duty.13 Operators, however, who chose 

to transport their rifles and SWAT gear home after their 

shifts were required to unload their firearms, radio, and 

night-vision goggles from their vehicles and store those 

items inside their residences. All other SWAT equipment 

could be left inside the locked vehicle, so long as the equipment could not be seen from outside the vehicle. SWAT operators stated that it took approximately fifteen minutes to 

load and unload their gear and weapons from their vehicles 

to their residences. 

The operators believed that Deputy Chief Georgas’s 

memo was a “litigation tactic,” and that the operators did 

not actually have a “choice” of where to store their weapons

and equipment.14 They therefore sent a memo on May 4, 

2017, to Lieutenant Lamb informing him and the CPD of 

their intention to “stor[e] their SWAT equipment, weapons 

and gear in their lockers and on SWAT trucks at Homan 

Square while off-duty.”15 The operators acknowledged, 

however, that they could not possibly maintain the constant 

state of readiness required of them if they stored their weapons and equipment at Homan Square.

13 R.181-9 at 2.

14 R.194-8 at 1; R.188 at 2–5.

15 R.194-8. 
10 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

On May 26, 2017, the CPD issued each SWAT operator a 

take-home vehicle. On September 22, 2017, Lieutenant Lamb 

released a memo reiterating that an operator who accepts a 

Department vehicle must transport CPD-issued SWAT firearms and gear in the Department vehicle at the end of the 

shift. SWAT operators, however, were permitted to store 

SWAT equipment at Homan Square upon request, which 

would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

B.

On September 16, 2014, Officers Robert Bartlett and Patrick Leydon, individually and on behalf of similarly situated 

SWAT operators, filed a complaint against the City of Chicago. The complaint alleged violations of the FLSA, the 

IMWL, and the IWPCA. In their initial complaint, the Bartlett 

plaintiffs sought compensation for the time spent commuting between home and work in their personal vehicles because during that commute they were transporting SWAT 

equipment and were not permitted to leave their vehicles 

unattended or carry civilian passengers. The Bartlett plaintiffs later amended their complaint, adding an additional 

claim for time spent loading and unloading their equipment 

and securing their equipment inside their residences. Their 

final complaint added claims for time spent commuting in 

department-issued vehicles, as opposed to solely personal 

vehicles. On September 21, 2018, Armando Chagoya and 

twenty-two other SWAT operators filed a complaint alleging 

the same violations. Due to the relatedness of the two cases, 

Chagoya was reassigned to the judge presiding over the Bartlett litigation.

In Bartlett, the City moved for summary judgment on all 

three claims, and the operators moved for summary judg-
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 11

ment on the FLSA and IMWL claims. The City took the view 

that the off-duty driving and transportation of SWAT weapons and gear during normal commutes between home and 

work were not tasks integral and indispensable to the SWAT 

operators’ principal activities. The City maintained that 

SWAT operators were permitted to store and have stored 

their SWAT equipment at Homan Square and, without taking their gear home, were still able to perform their principal 

activities. Finally, the City contended that there was no 

promise, agreement, or practice of compensating operators 

for the time spent during a normal commute or for loading 

and unloading equipment. On the FLSA and IMWL claims, 

the operators contended that transporting and storing their 

SWAT equipment while off duty was integral and indispensable to their ability to maintain “mission readiness” and directly respond to critical incidents. As such, carrying equipment from their residences to their vehicles was a compensable activity that marked the start of their workday. Under 

the continuous workday rule, they reasoned, the workday 

would extend to when they returned home and unloaded 

and secured equipment inside their residences. 

The district court agreed with the City. It concluded that 

the time spent loading and transporting equipment between 

an operator’s residence and vehicle was not compensable 

under the FLSA because it was “two steps removed” from 

the principal activity of responding to critical incidents.16

Although requiring the operators to bring their rifles and 

equipment home in case of an off-duty call-out may have 

16 R.257 at 12.
12 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

“support[ed] the Plaintiffs’ ability to respond to critical incidents,” these activities were not “integral and indispensable” to the officers’ principal activities.17 In support of its 

view, the court pointed out “that SWAT operators have been 

able to perform off-duty critical response efforts without 

having their gear at home, meaning that such a practice is 

not indispensable.”18 Because “the transportation, loading/unloading, and storage of gear is not integral and indispensable to a SWAT operator’s principal activity, ... [t]he 

practical effect of granting the Plaintiffs’ requested relief 

would be to compensate them for the time spent commuting 

to and from work.”19 Compensating the officers for this activity, the court further noted, would be contrary to the Portal-to-Portal Act, which explicitly excepted from compensation an employee’s commute time. See 29 U.S.C. § 254(a). 

The district court then turned to the operators’ IWPCA 

claim. To prevail on this claim, the operators had to establish 

that they were owed compensation from the City under an 

employment agreement. To fulfill this requirement, the operators pointed to their employment agreement, which provided for overtime compensation. The City replied that the 

overtime compensation provision was limited to “approved 

overtime.” The operators then relied upon, in the alternative, 

the City’s requirement that the operators transport and store 

their SWAT equipment as the agreement that binds the City 

17 Id. at 12.

18 Id. at 13.

19 Id.
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 13

under the IWPCA. The City replied that there was no 

agreement between the parties that the operators would be 

compensated for the transportation and loading/unloading 

of equipment between their vehicles and residences. The 

City also noted that it consistently had denied the operators’ 

requests for such overtime pay. 

The district court held that “the record and the existence 

of this lawsuit clearly indicate[d that] the City did not agree 

to pay the Plaintiffs overtime for the transportation and storage of their gear,” and granted summary judgment in favor 

of the City on the IWPCA claim.20 

On October 1, 2019, the district court entered summary 

judgment for the City in Bartlett. Subsequently, it entered 

judgment in favor of the City in Chagoya. The parties timely 

filed a joint notice of appeal. 

II

DISCUSSION

We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment 

de novo. Gill v. Scholz, 962 F.3d 360, 363 (7th Cir. 2020). 

“Where, as here, both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, all reasonable inferences are drawn in favor 

of the party against whom the motion was granted.” Id. 

Summary judgment is proper if the pleadings, the discovery 

and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show 

“that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the 

movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. 

Civ. P. 56(c). We begin with the operators’ FLSA and IMWL 

20 Id. at 15. 
14 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

claims, which we consider together.21 We then will consider 

separately the operators’ IWPCA claim. 

A.

The operators first contend that the off-duty time spent 

transporting, loading and unloading SWAT equipment to 

and from their vehicles, and securing SWAT equipment inside their residences is compensable time because these activities are integral and indispensable to carrying out their 

principal activities. Resolution of this issue requires that we 

construe and apply the provisions of the FLSA. The Supreme 

Court and the courts of appeals have interpreted the text of 

this statute on many occasions, and Congress has amended 

the text, at least partially because of that judicial interpretation. A brief examination of that judicial-legislative dialogue 

will be helpful to our analysis. 

1. 

The FLSA, enacted in 1938, established minimum wage 

and overtime compensation standards for hours worked in 

excess of forty hours in each workweek. 29 U.S.C. § 201 et 

seq. As the Supreme Court has noted, the legislative history 

indicates that “the prime purpose of the [FLSA] was to aid 

the unprotected, unorganized and lowest paid of the nation’s working population” in recognition of the unequal 

bargaining power of these employees to secure a minimum 

21 Because the IMWL parallels the language of the FLSA, the parties 

agree that the same standard applies to the operators’ claims under the 

FLSA and the IMWL. Accordingly, we analyze the FLSA and IMWL 

claims together. See, e.g., Urnikis-Negro v. Am. Fam. Prop. Servs., 616 F.3d 

665, 672 n.3 (7th Cir. 2010). 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 15

subsistence wage. Brooklyn Sav. Bank v. O’Neil, 324 U.S. 697, 

706–07 n.18 (1945). An employer who does not comply with 

the Act faces liability for backpay, liquidated damages, and 

attorney’s fees. 29 U.S.C. §§ 215–16. 

The original text of the FLSA left certain key provisions 

undefined; it did not define “work” or “workweek.” The 

Supreme Court initially interpreted those terms broadly. In 

Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 

321 U.S. 590 (1944), the Court defined “work” as “physical or 

mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or 

required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.” Id. 

at 598. Shortly afterward, the Supreme Court “clarified that 

‘exertion’ was not ... necessary for an activity to constitute 

‘work’ under the FLSA,” noting that an employer could hire 

an employee “to do nothing, or to do nothing but wait for 

something to happen.” IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U.S. 21, 25 

(2005) (quoting Armour & Co. v. Wantock, 323 U.S. 126, 133 

(1944)). In Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680 

(1946), the Court defined “the statutory workweek [as] all 

time during which an employee is necessarily required to be 

on the employer’s premises, on duty or at a prescribed 

workplace.” Id. at 690–91. Thus, under this broad reading, 

the Supreme Court had held that “the time necessarily spent 

by the employees in walking to work on the employer’s 

premises, following the punching of the time clocks,” Anderson, 328 U.S. at 691, and that time spent by iron ore miners 

traveling underground in mines, Tennessee Coal, 321 U.S. at 

598–99, constituted “work” for which employees were entitled compensation.
16 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

These holdings “provoked a flood of litigation,” with 

“unions and employees fil[ing] more than 1,500 lawsuits 

under the FLSA,” seeking almost a combined “$6 billion in 

backpay and liquidated damages for various preshift and 

postshift activities.” Integrity Staffing Sols., Inc. v. Busk, 574 

U.S. 27, 31–32 (2014). In response to the litigation that followed the Supreme Court’s rulings, “a flood of anti-portal 

bills was introduced” in Congress. Marc Linder, Class Struggle at the Door: The Origins of the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, 39 

Buff. L. Rev. 53, 133 (1991). 

Congress determined that the Act “ha[d] been interpreted judicially in disregard of long-established customs, practices, and contracts between employers and employees, 

thereby creating wholly unexpected liabilities, immense in 

amount and retroactive in operation, upon employers,” and 

declared the current situation an “emergency.” 29 U.S.C. 

§ 251. It concluded that, if the Court’s interpretation of the 

Act were to stand, it “would bring about financial ruin of 

many employers and seriously impair the capital resources 

of many others,” while allowing “employees [to] receive 

windfall payments, ... for activities performed by them 

without any expectation of reward beyond that included in 

their agreed rates of pay.” Id. 

“Congress met this emergency with the Portal-to-Portal 

Act.” Integrity Staffing, 574 U.S. at 32. The Portal-to-Portal 

Act amended the FLSA by creating two categories of 

work-related activities for which employers were not liable: 

(a) ... [N]o employer shall be subject to any liability or punishment ... on account of the 

failure of such employer to pay an employ-
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 17

ee minimum wages, or to pay an employee 

overtime compensation, for ... — 

(1) walking, riding, or traveling to and from 

the actual place of performance of the 

principal activity or activities which 

such employee is employed to perform, 

and

(2) activities which are preliminary to or 

postliminary to said principal activity or 

activities,

which occur either prior to the time on any 

particular workday at which such employee 

commences, or subsequent to the time on any 

particular workday at which he ceases, such 

principal activity or activities.

29 U.S.C. § 254(a). Thus, ordinary commute times and preliminary and postliminary activities that occurred before or 

after the workday were no longer compensable activities 

under the FLSA.

Notably, the Portal-to-Portal Act left in place the continuous workday rule. Under this rule, “compensable time 

comprises ‘the period between the commencement and 

completion on the same workday of an employee’s principal 

activity or activities ... [,] whether or not the employee engages in work throughout all of that period.’” Sandifer v. U.S. 

Steel Corp., 571 U.S. 220, 226 (2014) (quoting 12 Fed. Reg. 

7658 (1947); 29 C.F.R. § 790.6(b) (2013)). The Department of 

Labor’s interpretive statements confirm the continued vitali-
18 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

ty of this rule.22 Those statements provide explicitly that the 

“[p]eriods of time between the commencement of the employee’s first principal activity and the completion of his last 

principal activity on any workday must be included in the 

computation of hours worked”; such time is unaffected by 

the excepted categories created by the Portal-to-Portal Act. 

29 C.F.R. § 790.6(a); see 29 U.S.C. § 254(a). Similarly, the interpretive statements define “workday” as “the period between the commencement and completion on the same 

22 The Department of Labor’s interpretive statements relating to the Portal-to-Portal Act “are not promulgated regulations because Congress did 

not authorize the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations regarding the 

scope of the exemptions.” Bonilla v. Baker Concrete Constr., Inc., 487 F.3d 

1340, 1343 (11th Cir. 2007); 29 C.F.R. § 790.1(c) (“[T]he interpretations set 

forth herein are intended to indicate the construction of the law which 

the Administration believes to be correct.”). “As an interpretive regulation, it does not have the force of binding law.” Howard v. City of Springfield, Ill., 274 F.3d 1141, 1146 (7th Cir. 2001) (citing Shaw v. Prentice Hall 

Comput. Publ’g, Inc., 151 F.3d 640, 642 (7th Cir. 1998)). The Department of 

Labor’s interpretative statement, then, is “not entitled to deference, although courts may rely on it as persuasive evidence both of Congress’s 

legislative and the Secretary’s regulatory intent.” Id.; see also Gonzales v. 

Oregon, 546 U.S. 243, 256 (2006) (“[T]he interpretation is ‘entitled to respect’ only to the extent it has the ‘power to persuade.’” (quoting Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 140 (1944))); Skidmore, 323 U.S. at 140 

(“[R]ulings, interpretations and opinions of the Administrator under this 

Act, while not controlling upon the courts by reason of their authority, 

do constitute a body of experience and informed judgment to which 

courts and litigants may properly resort for guidance. The weight of such 

a judgment in a particular case will depend upon the thoroughness evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency 

with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it 

power to persuade, if lacking power to control.”). 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 19

workday of an employee’s principal activity or activities.” 29 

C.F.R. § 790.6(b). 

Congress again amended the Portal-to-Portal Act in 1996 

with the Employment Commute Flexibility Act (“ECFA”). 

This enactment “clarifie[d] the applicability of the Portal-to-Portal Act to the payment of wages to employees who 

use employer-provided vehicles.” Chambers v. Sears Roebuck 

& Co., 428 F. App’x 400, 409 (5th Cir. 2011). The ECFA, in 

relevant part, states: 

[T]he use of an employer’s vehicle for travel by 

an employee and activities performed by an 

employee which are incidental to the use of 

such vehicle for commuting shall not be considered part of the employee’s principal activities if the use of such vehicle for travel is within the normal commuting area for the employer’s business or establishment and the use of 

the employer’s vehicle is subject to an agreement on the part of the employer and the employee. 

29 U.S.C. § 254(a). 

Therefore, the FLSA, as amended, applies only to the 

employee’s “principal activity.” An employee’s “principal 

activity” includes any activity “integral and indispensable” 

to the principal activity. A “principal activity” commences 

an employee’s workday; once started, that “workday” continues until the conclusion of the employee’s final principal 

activity of the day. The Act, however, does not apply to a 

worker’s “preliminary activity” or “postliminary activity.”
20 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

The dichotomy between “principal activity” on the one 

hand and “preliminary activity” or “postliminary activity” 

on the other is an important distinction for our analysis. Just 

as important, however, is a clear understanding of “principal 

activity.” An employee’s “principal activity” is the activity 

or activities which the employee is employed to perform. Integrity Staffing, 574 U.S. at 36; see also 29 C.F.R. § 790.8(a). The 

Department of Labor notes that “[t]he legislative history ... 

indicates that Congress intended the words ‘principal activities’ to be construed liberally ... to include any work of consequence performed for an employer, no matter when the 

work is performed.” 29 C.F.R. § 790.8(a). 

The Supreme Court consistently has interpreted “principal activity” to include all activities which are “integral and 

indispensable” to the principal activity. Integrity Staffing, 574 

U.S. at 33; IBP, Inc., 546 U.S. at 29–30; Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 

U.S. 247, 252–53 (1956). This reading is consistent with the 

Department of Labor’s interpretive statements. See 29 C.F.R. 

§ 790.8(b) (“The term ‘principal activities’ includes all activities which are an integral part of a principal activity.”); id. 

§ 790.8(c) (“Among the activities included as an integral part 

of a principal activity are those closely related activities 

which are indispensable to its performance.”). 

In defining “integral and indispensable,” the Supreme 

Court has interpreted “those words in their ordinary sense.” 

Integrity Staffing, 574 U.S. at 33. “The word ‘integral’ means 

‘[b]elonging to or making up an integral whole; constituent, 

component; spec[ifically] necessary to the completeness or 

integrity of the whole; forming an intrinsic portion or element, as distinguished from an adjunct or appendage.’” Id.

(alterations in original) (quoting 5 Oxford English Dictionary 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 21

336 (1933)). The word “‘indispensable’ means a duty ‘[t]hat 

cannot be dispensed with, remitted, set aside, disregarded, 

or neglected.’” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting 5 Oxford 

English Dictionary 219). Thus, “[a]n activity is therefore integral and indispensable to the principal activities that an 

employee is employed to perform if it is an intrinsic element 

of those activities and one with which the employee cannot

dispense if he is to perform his principal activities.” Id. 

By contrast, a “preliminary activity” is “an activity engaged in by an employee before the commencement of his 

‘principal’ activity or activities.” 29 C.F.R. § 790.7(b). Similarly, a “postliminary activity” is “an activity engaged in by an 

employee after the completion of his ‘principal’ activity or 

activities.” Id. “[A]n activity which is a ‘preliminary’ or 

‘postliminary’ activity under one set of circumstances may 

be a principal activity under other conditions.” Id. § 790.7(h). 

The cases and Department of Labor statements interpreting the Portal-to-Portal Act focus on the distinction between 

“principal activity” on the one hand, and “preliminary” and 

“postliminary” on the other. By doing so, they help illustrate 

the meaning of “integral and indispensable,” which, as we 

have seen, is the important descriptive phrase in our understanding of “principal activity.” We therefore will review 

these authorities before returning to the facts of the case before us. 

We begin with Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U.S. at 247. There, 

the Supreme Court held that the time spent by battery-plant 

employees “changing clothes at the beginning of the shift 

and showering at the end, where they must make extensive 

use of dangerously caustic and toxic materials,” was integral 

and indispensable to the employees’ principal activity. Id. at 
22 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

248. In Mitchell v. King Packing Co., 350 U.S. 260 (1956), the 

Court held that “the knife-sharpening activities of 

[meat-packer employees] [we]re an integral part of and indispensable to the various butchering activities for which 

they were principally employed.” Id. at 263. The activity was 

integral and indispensable because “a dull knife would slow 

down production which is conducted on an assembly line 

basis, affect the appearance of the meat as well as the quality 

of the hides, cause waste and make for accidents.” Id. at 262. 

By contrast, in IBP, Inc., 546 U.S. at 21, the Court held that 

the time spent by meat processing plant employees waiting

to don protective gear was not compensable under the FLSA 

because it was “two steps removed from the productive activity on the assembly line.” 546 U.S.at 42. The Court contrasted pre-donning waiting time from the actual activity of 

donning certain protective gear “which is always essential if 

the worker is to do his job.” Id. at 40. “[T]he fact that certain 

preshift activities are necessary for employees to engage in 

their principal activities does not mean that those preshift 

activities are ‘integral and indispensable’ to a ‘principal activity.’” Id. To characterize as “integral and indispensable” 

activities that were merely necessary would leave “no limiting principle” and lead “to the logical (but untenable) conclusion that the walking time at issue in Anderson would be a 

‘principal activity.’” Id. at 41. Such conclusion, however, was 

the judicial interpretation squarely rejected by Congress 

when it passed the Portal-to-Portal Act.23 

23 Following the Supreme Court’s decision in IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U.S. 

21 (2005), the Department of Labor issued Wage and Hour Advisory 

Memorandum No. 2006-2 on May 31, 2006, reiterating that

(continued ... ) 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 23

In Integrity Staffing, 574 U.S. at 27, the Court reiterated 

that “[t]he integral and indispensable test is tied to the productive work that the employee is employed to perform.” 574 

U.S. at 36. There, employees sought compensation for the 

time spent undergoing post-shift security screenings before 

leaving the workplace. The principal activity of the employees, however, was to “retrieve products from warehouse 

shelves and package those products for shipment to Amazon 

customers.” Id. at 35. The employees were not hired “to undergo security screenings” and “[t]he screenings were not an 

intrinsic element of retrieving products from warehouse

shelves or packaging them for shipment.” Id. Further, “Integrity Staffing could have eliminated the screenings altogether without impairing the employees’ ability to complete 

their work.” Id.

The Department of Labor offers two more examples of 

activities considered integral and indispensable, and therefore principal activities:

( ... continued)

... donning and doffing of required gear is within the 

continuous workday only when the employer or the nature of the job mandates that it take place on the employer’s premises. It is our longstanding position that if 

employees have the option and the ability to change into 

the required gear at home, changing into that gear is not 

a principal activity, even when it takes place at the plant.

Id. at 3; see also Stuntz v. Lion Elastomers, 826 F. App’x 391, 401 (5th Cir. 

2020) (affirming the district court’s determination that time spent donning and doffing generic PPE was not integral or indispensable, as “employees admitted their option of either taking the PPE home or leaving 

them at the facility”).
24 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

(1) In connection with the operation of a lathe 

an employee will frequently at the commencement of his workday oil, grease or 

clean his machine, or install a new cutting 

tool. Such activities are an integral part of 

the principal activity, and are included 

within such term.

(2) In the case of a garment worker in a textile 

mill, who is required to report 30 minutes 

before other employees report to commence 

their principal activities, and who during 

such 30 minutes distributes clothing or 

parts of clothing at the workbenches of other employees and gets machines in readiness for operation by other employees, such 

activities are among the principal activities 

of such employee.

29 C.F.R. § 790.8(b)(1)–(2). The Department of Labor also 

provides an example of when an activity might be integral 

and indispensable in one context, but not in another:

If an employee in a chemical plant, for example, cannot perform his principal activities 

without putting on certain clothes, changing 

clothes on the employer’s premises at the beginning and end of the workday would be an 

integral part of the employee’s principal activity. On the other hand, if changing clothes is 

merely a convenience to the employee and not 

directly related to his principal activities, it 

would be considered a “preliminary” or “post-
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 25

liminary” activity rather than a principal part 

of the activity.

Id. § 790.8(c) (footnotes omitted). 

With these authorities in mind, we now turn to the case 

before us. 

2. 

a. 

The operators submit that the district court should not 

have granted summary judgment because a factual dispute 

remains as to whether SWAT operators must take their gear 

home in order to perform their principal activity of providing a tactical response to high-risk critical incidents. In their 

view, the district court ignored significant evidence that 

bringing their gear home was essential to providing the rapid response necessary to the unit’s mission. It was error, they 

urge, for the district court to reach this conclusion by relying 

on the one exception where an individual officer was permitted to store his M4 rifle at Homan Square because he 

could not provide safe storage at home. 

The City points out that there is evidence in the record 

that the CPD has allowed officers to store weapons at 

Homan Square at various times. Even after 2017 when the 

CPD made vehicles available to all the operators, officers received permission to leave weapons at Homan Square. The 

City maintains, however, that the general expectation is that 

members of the SWAT Unit will take their gear home. 

It is not at all clear that there is an issue of fact separating 

the parties about the policy or the practice of the CPD. In 

any event, any such disagreement is hardly material to the 
26 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

resolution of the dispute in this case. In Integrity Staffing, 

where security screenings were held to be postliminary to 

the principal activity of retrieving and packaging products, 

the Supreme Court held that the court of appeals had “erred 

by focusing on whether an employer required a particular activity.” Integrity Staffing, 574 U.S. at 36. The Court clarified 

that “[t]he integral and indispensable test is tied to the productive work that the employee is employed to perform.” Id.

To focus merely on whether the employer required an activity “would sweep into ‘principal activities’ the very activities 

that the Portal-to-Portal Act was designed to address.” Id.

Even assuming a factual dispute, the “integral and indispensable” test does not turn on whether an employer required a 

particular activity. As we explain further below, even if the 

operators could prove these activities were fully required, 

their position still fails. Therefore, whether SWAT operators 

were required to transport and store their equipment in their 

residences is not a material dispute and does not preclude 

summary judgment.

b.

We next examine the position of the operators. In essence, the operators maintain that bringing their weapons 

and equipment home, removing much of it from their vehicles, and storing securely the removed portion in their 

homes is an integral and indispensable part of their principal 

activity. They define that principal activity as responding 

rapidly and systematically to critical incidents. In their view, 

their workday begins when they begin to load their weapons 

and gear in the CPD car at their home and ends when they 

have secured that property in their home upon return. Noting that the district court relied in part on the decision of the 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 27

Ninth Circuit in Balestrieri v. Menlo Park Fire Protection District, 800 F.3d 1094 (9th Cir. 2015), they take significant care 

in attempting to distinguish that case from their own.

In Balestrieri, the Ninth Circuit considered whether firefighters were entitled to overtime compensation for the time 

spent loading and unloading their gear from their permanent to temporary duty stations while they were in an 

off-duty status. The court held that this time was not compensable under the FLSA because it was “two steps removed” from the firefighters’ principal activity of fire suppression. Because the loading and transporting of gear was a 

“preliminary” activity and “not intrinsic to” fire suppression, it was not “integral and indispensable.” Here, the district court concluded that the off-duty loading and transportation of SWAT equipment was similarly “two steps removed” from the principal activity of critical incident response.

The operators submit that the district court’s reliance on 

Balestrieri was misplaced because (1) the principal activities 

and requirements of SWAT operators are not sufficiently 

similar to those of the firefighters and (2) the gear at issue 

was simply not comparable.24 The operators maintain that 

they cannot perform their principal activity of responding to 

critical incidents if they leave their equipment at work. They 

point to the goals and mission of the SWAT unit, the expectations that operators respond within an hour of call-out, 

and the continued emphasis on maintaining a state of readiness. In their view, taking their equipment home is integral 

24 Appellant’s Br. 14–18.
28 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

and indispensable to maintaining a state of readiness and 

responding within one hour of a call-out.

In assessing the operators’ view, we turn first to the time 

spent by the operators in their CPD vehicles driving to and 

from their duty station for their regular work shifts. We have 

little difficulty in concluding that this time is not, standing 

alone, compensable. The 1996 amendments to the Portal-to-Portal Act through the ECFA make it clear that commuting time in an employer-provided vehicle is not compensable under the FLSA. This rule is not rendered nugatory 

simply because, as here, the employee carried supplies and 

equipment related to the employer’s business. Nor does the 

analysis change simply because the employer places certain 

restrictions on the use of the vehicle. 

The Eleventh Circuit arrived at a similar conclusion in 

Llorca v. Sheriff, Collier County, Florida, 893 F.3d 1319 (11th 

Cir. 2018). There, the court held that sheriff deputies’ commute time—during which they were required to monitor the 

radio and observe and enforce traffic violations—was not an 

indispensable activity because the requirement to monitor 

“could be dispensed with without affecting at all the deputies’ performance of their law enforcement duties during 

their shifts.” Id. at 1328. Even if abolition of these in-transit 

duties had the effect of undermining law enforcement generally, the Eleventh Circuit concluded that the deputies 

“could fully perform their law enforcement duties during 

their shifts even if the sheriffs did not require them to engage in traffic law enforcement during their commutes.” Id. 

We agree that Balestrieri and Llorca support the district 

court’s view of this case. However, even in the absence of 

these supportive cases from our sister circuits, we still would 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 29

conclude that applicable Supreme Court precedent and consonant Department of Labor interpretive statements require 

the conclusion that the off-duty transportation, loading and 

unloading, and storage of SWAT equipment simply is not 

integral and indispensable to SWAT operators’ principal activities. Certainly, as the operators maintain, the record supports the assertion that the SWAT unit must respond quickly 

in the event of a call-out. The record does not support the 

conclusion, however, that the operators could not perform 

their principal duties without bringing their equipment 

home. SWAT operators may be able to perform their jobs 

better if they bring their weapons and other gear home, but 

as they had prior to 2009, SWAT operators still are able to 

perform their principal activities if they do not bring their 

equipment home but rely on other arrangements. Indeed, 

the record establishes that the officers who were unable to 

store their rifles at home would pick up their weapons from 

the weapons truck when it arrived on site. An activity that 

allows a reduced response time is an activity that promotes 

greater efficiency, but greater efficiency alone does not turn

an activity into an integral and indispensable one. 

The expectation that the operators will respond to emergency situations that occur while in transit is not an obligation in any way tied to their status as SWAT operators or to 

their use of a CPD vehicle. These are obligations undertaken 

by all off-duty CPD officers by virtue of the position of trust 

that they hold. In the same vein, the restrictions imposed on 

their use of CPD vehicles do not have even the most remote 

relationship to the principal activity of the operators. The 

CPD, like any employer who loans valuable property to an 

employee, has the right to impose reasonable restrictions on 

its use while it is in the custody of the employee. The City 
30 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

has every right to limit its liability exposure and to guard 

against excessive depreciation of its assets.

The CPD requirement that certain equipment not be left 

in the vehicle but stored in the residence is nothing more 

than a reasonable directive that its officers take the precautions necessary to ensure the safe and secure storage of the 

weapons and equipment. This activity is very far removed, 

both logically and practically, from the operators’ principal 

activity of handling critical incidents. It is simply designed 

to protect the public and ensure that Chicago-owned dangerous equipment is not used abusively. 

The record firmly establishes that the activities for which 

the operators seek compensation are not integral and indispensable, but rather preliminary and postliminary activities 

to the workday, and explicitly excluded in the Portal-to-Portal Act.25 Thus, the continuous workday rule is in25 The operators also contend that the district court failed to consider a 

number of relevant cases. These cases are distinguishable because the 

pre- or post-commute tasks at issue were found to be integral and indispensable to the principal activity. 

In Graham v. City of Chicago, 828 F. Supp. 576 (N.D. Ill. 1993), canine 

police officers who were required to board dogs at home, sought compensation for the time spent transporting the dogs to and from work. 

The court held that such time was compensable, as it was integral and 

indispensable to the officers’ principal duties. Before transporting the 

dogs, “the officers must feed the animals and prepare them for the day’s 

work,” which the court found “clearly integral to their principal duties.” 

Id. at 582. Similarly, transporting the dogs from work to home was “not 

postliminary because the principal activities [were] still ongoing: the 

dogs must still be fed and exercised.” Id. For an employee’s commute 

time to be considered compensable, the court must first find that the ac-

(continued ... ) 
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 31

applicable here. 

B.

We now turn to the operators’ remaining state-law claim. 

The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act “provides 

employees with a cause of action against employers for the 

timely and complete payment of earned wages.” Enger v. 

Chi. Carriage Cab Corp., 812 F.3d 565, 568 (7th Cir. 2016) (citing 820 ILCS 115/3). The IWPCA defines “wages” as “compensation owed an employee by an employer pursuant to an 

employment contract or agreement between the 2 parties.” 

820 ILCS 115/2. To state a claim under the IWPCA, employees are “required to demonstrate that they are owed compensation from defendants pursuant to an employment 

agreement.” Enger, 812 F.3d at 568; see also Brown v. Lululemon Athletica, Inc., No. 10-cv-05672, 2011 WL 741254, at *3 

(N.D. Ill. Feb. 24, 2011) (“It is well established that an em-

( ... continued)

tivities done before or after the commute were integral and indispensable. 

The court in Pizano v. Big Top & Party Rentals, LLC, No. 15-cv-11190, 

2017 WL 1344526 (N.D. Ill. Apr. 12, 2017), did conclude that ride time 

could be compensable under the FLSA, but the court did not determine if 

compensation was actually warranted. The order the operators cite to, 

however, did not decide the case—a factual issue remained, and discovery had not yet begun. The court stated that “[a]ssuming that Plaintiff 

establishes that he performed such tasks and that these tasks are integral 

and indispensable to Defendants’ principal activity,” then the travel time 

would be compensable under the continuous workday rule. Id. at *5. 

Still, Pizano does not support the operators’ case here if the loading and 

unloading of equipment are held to be only preliminary and postliminary activities. 
32 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

ployee can have no claim under the IWPCA unless the employer and employee agreed that the former would compensate the latter for the particular work allegedly performed.”). 

Such an “employment agreement need not be a formally 

negotiated contract.” Landers-Scelfo v. Corp. Off. Sys., Inc., 827 

N.E.2d 1051, 1059 (Ill. App. Ct. 2005). A plaintiff “does not 

need to plead all contract elements if she can plead facts 

showing mutual assent to terms that support the recovery.” 

Id. The IWPCA, however, “provides no substantive relief 

beyond what the underlying employment contract requires.” 

Enger, 812 F.3d at 570; see also Wharton v. Comcast Corp., 912 

F. Supp. 2d 655, 658 (N.D. Ill. 2012) (“The IWPCA therefore 

does not provide an independent right to payment of wages 

and benefits; instead, it only enforces the terms of an existing 

contract or agreement.”). Thus, the IWPCA holds the employer only to its promise under the employment agreement. 

Enger, 812 F.3d at 570. 

The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the City 

and Chicago police officers provides that “[a]ll approved 

overtime in excess of the hours required of an officer by reason of the officer’s regular duty, whether of an emergency 

nature or of a non-emergency nature, shall be compensated 

for at the rate of time-and-one-half.”26 According to the operators, the City effectively “pre-authorized and 

pre-approved” them to work overtime by requiring them to 

transport, load and unload, and secure their SWAT equipment while off duty.27 Moreover, the operators continue, be26 R.185-1 at 41; R.185-2 at 30–31.

27 Appellant’s Br. 8, 26–28.
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 33

cause the City gives the operators on-the-clock time to transfer the equipment from their take-home vehicle upon arrival 

at work and to transfer it again at the end of the shift, “the 

City has determined it is compensable work.”28 The City, 

however, maintains that there was no such agreement, “either by written contract or by their actions,” that the operators’ compensable work included their commute time, the 

loading and unloading of equipment from their vehicles to 

their residences, and the securing of that equipment inside 

their residences.29 

We start our evaluation of this argument by noting that 

there is nothing in the Collective Bargaining Agreement—or 

the record—to establish the existence of an express agreement between the parties that the City would compensate 

the operators for the off-duty time spent transporting, unloading, and securing their equipment inside their residences. It is not enough to allege “the existence of any employment contract or agreement”: the operators must “alleg[e] 

the existence of a contract or agreement that specifically 

gives [the Operators] a right to the wages [they] seek[].” 

Dominguez v. Micro Ctr. Sales Corp., No. 11-cv-8202, 2012 WL 

1719793, at *1 (N.D. Ill. May 15, 2012) (dismissing IWPCA 

claim for failure to allege specific agreement beyond general 

employment contract).30 However, as the operators submit, 

28 Id. at 27.

29 Appellee’s Br. 39. 

30 See also, e.g., Grant v. Bd. of Educ. of City of Chi., 668 N.E.2d 1188, 1196

(Ill. App. Ct. 1996) (rejecting IWPCA claim because collective bargaining 

agreement did not require the payment of accumulated unused sick 

(continued ... ) 
34 Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 

express agreements are not required in IWPCA cases. An 

agreement “can be entirely implicit.” Landers-Scelfo, 827 

N.E.2d at 1058. Indeed, an employer’s acquiescence or the 

existence of a custom or practice may constitute an agreement to compensate for such activities. See Blakes v. Ill. Bell 

Tel. Co., 77 F. Supp. 3d 776, 781–82 (N.D. Ill. 2015). 

Here, the record is also devoid of any implicit agreement 

between the parties or of any acquiescence by the City that 

operators would be compensated for the activities at issue. 

Several operators stated that they were unaware of any 

agreement that the City had an obligation to pay the operators for the time at issue. The evidence of a custom or practice is even weaker. Indeed, several operators first submitted 

overtime slips in March and April 2016 for the time spent 

transporting, loading and unloading, and securing their 

equipment in their residences. Other operators admitted that 

they never submitted overtime slips until March 2016 because they knew their slips would be denied. And in May 

2016, the City denied the overtime slips submitted for such 

activities. The officers contend that “[t]he fact that the City 

never paid Plaintiffs for their uncompensated work or denied Plaintiffs’ requests to be paid for said work does not 

prove that there was no agreement to [pay] for said work.”31

However, without any other evidence in the record beyond 

personal convictions that they should have been paid, the 

( ... continued)

leave); Brand v. Comcast Corp., No. 12-cv-1122, 2013 WL 1499008, at *6 

(N.D. Ill. Apr. 11, 2013) (“It is not sufficient for an IWPCA claimant to 

allude to a ‘policy’ to pay overtime.”). 

31 Appellant’s Br. 28.
Nos. 19-3180 & 19-3183 35

operators have failed to demonstrate a genuine dispute of 

material fact to survive summary judgment. 

Conclusion

The off-duty activities of transporting, loading and unloading, and storing SWAT equipment are too removed 

from the operators’ principal activity of responding to critical incidents. Additionally, there was no agreement—

explicit or implicit—between the parties that the City would 

provide overtime compensation for such activities. Accordingly, the judgments of the district court are affirmed. 

AFFIRMED