Opinion ID: 438764
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: early relief during lockages

Text: 26 A lockage occurred when a vessel came through the navigation locks at the dams. An operator was sent from the control room to the locks to perform the lockage. Occasionally, a lockage would occur at the time of a shift change and early arriving employees would be sent to the locks to relieve the operator. This practice enabled the departing employee to avoid having to work past the scheduled shift. 27 The district court found that an employee was asked to relieve the previous operator only once or twice a month, and that it took 5 to 15 minutes to relieve an operator. It properly concluded that this claim was de minimis. The aggregate amount of time involved was insignificant and the practice was irregular. A great deal of uncertainty surrounded the testimony as to how often lockages occurred at a shift change. Moreover, because of the ad hoc nature of this duty, it would have been difficult as an administrative matter for the Corps to record this overtime.