Opinion ID: 565175
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Unilateral Agreement

Text: 73 Region V did not negotiate with its employees on the issue of sleep time compensation. It created its own employment agreement from a sample agreement obtained from the National Association of Private Residential Resources (NAPRR). The NAPRR had advised Region V that the agreement had been approved by the Department. Region V deleted portions of the sample agreement discussing the value of room and board provided to the employee by the employer. Region V's agreement stated that since both the meals and quarters made available to EMPLOYEE are for REGION V's convenience, no value is assigned to room and board for pay purposes, and no charge is made to EMPLOYEE for them. J.App. at 47. Region V also did not include the Employment Agreement Pay Schedule Breakdown that was attached to the sample agreement as part of the contract. The pay schedule breakdown applies a fixed dollar value to the employee's use of the premises and it specified the number of hours excluded pursuant to the terms of the agreement. Region V did not distinguish between the employer's premises and the employees' living quarters as did the sample agreement. It also added a clause stating that all overtime had to be documented with incident reports. Region V never asked legal counsel to review the agreement regarding the sleep time exclusion. Tr. at 765-68. It only asked counsel to review the agreement for legal problems. Tr. at 768; Jt.App. at 89-90. 74 Any agreement to exclude sleep time must be mutually agreed upon. 6 Hultgren, 913 F.2d at 506. Region V did not attempt to reach a mutually agreed-upon decision that sleep time would be uncompensated. The 1985 opinion letter stated that the employer could not unilaterally decide to exclude sleep time from compensation. Appellant's App. at 27. Region V's employees had no input into the terms of the agreement. Tr. at 599, 772. Region V required its employees to individually sign the employment agreement to receive their paychecks. Tr. at 55-58, 135, 176-77, 418, 454-57, 543-44, 963. The majority contends there was no evidence that the employees refused to sign the agreement but it is difficult to refuse to sign under the duress of a withheld paycheck. 75