Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 660.0

529US2

Unit: $U53

[09-26-01 10:37:28] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 576 (2000)

585

Opinion of the Court

tory time exception enacted by Congress in the wake of
Garcia would become a nullity when employees who refuse
to use compensatory time reach the statutory maximums on
accrual. Petitioners’ position would convert § 207(o)(3)(A)’s
shield into a sword, forcing employers to pay cash compen-
sation instead of providing compensatory time to employees
who work overtime.

At bottom, we think the better reading of § 207(o)(5) is
that it imposes a restriction upon an employer’s efforts to
prohibit the use of compensatory time when employees re-
quest to do so; that provision says nothing about restricting
an employer’s efforts to require employees to use compensa-
tory time. Because the statute is silent on this issue and
because Harris County’s policy is entirely compatible with
§ 207(o)(5), petitioners cannot, as they are required to do by
29 U. S. C. § 216(b), prove that Harris County has violated
§ 207.

Our interpretation of § 207(o)(5)—one that does not pro-
hibit employers from forcing employees to use compensatory
time—ﬁnds support in two other features of the FLSA.
First, employers remain free under the FLSA to decrease
the number of hours that employees work. An employer
may tell the employee to take off an afternoon, a day, or even
an entire week. Cf. Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight
System, Inc., 450 U. S. 728, 739 (1981) (“[T]he FLSA was
designed . . . to ensure that each employee covered by the
Act . . . would be protected from the evil of overwork . . .”
(internal quotation marks and emphasis omitted)). Second,
the FLSA explicitly permits an employer to cash out accu-
mulated compensatory time by paying the employee his reg-
ular hourly wage for each hour accrued. § 207(o)(3)(B); 29
CFR § 553.27(a) (1999). Thus, under the FLSA an employer
is free to require an employee to take time off work, and an
employer is also free to use the money it would have paid in
wages to cash out accrued compensatory time. The com-
pelled use of compensatory time challenged in this case