Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf
Page Number: 9.0

Cite as:  574 U. S. ____ (2014) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

compensable if he “c[ould not] perform his principal activi-
ties  without  putting  on  certain  clothes”  but  would  not  be 
compensable  if  “changing  clothes  [were]  merely  a  conven-
ience to the employee and not directly related to his prin-
cipal activities.”  See §790.8(c).  As the regulations explain,
“when  performed  under  the  conditions  normally  present,” 
activities  including  “checking  in  and  out  and  waiting  in 
line  to  do  so,  changing  clothes,  washing  up  or  showering,
and  waiting  in  line  to  receive  pay  checks”  are  “ ‘prelimi-
nary’ ” or “ ‘postliminary’ ” activities.  §790.7(g). 

III
 
A 

The security screenings at issue here are noncompensa-
ble postliminary activities.  To begin with, the screenings
were  not  the  “principal  activity  or  activities  which  [the] 
employee is employed to perform.”  29 U. S. C. §254(a)(1).
Integrity  Staffing  did  not  employ  its  workers  to  undergo
security  screenings,  but  to  retrieve  products  from  ware-
house shelves and package those products for shipment to
Amazon customers. 

The  security  screenings  also  were  not  “integral  and
indispensable”  to  the  employees’  duties  as  warehouse 
workers.  As  explained  above,  an  activity  is  not  integral 
and  indispensable  to  an  employee’s  principal  activities 
unless it is an intrinsic element of those activities and one 
with  which  the  employee  cannot  dispense  if  he  is  to  per-
form those activities.  The screenings were not an intrinsic 
element of retrieving products from warehouse shelves or 
packaging  them  for  shipment.    And  Integrity  Staffing
could  have  eliminated  the  screenings  altogether  without 
impairing the employees’ ability to complete their work.

The  Solicitor  General,  adopting  the  position  of  the  De-
partment  of  Labor,  agrees  that  these  screenings  were
noncompensable  postliminary  activities.    See  Brief  for 
United  States  10.    That  view  is  fully  consistent  with  an