Overtime pay exemption can apply to prisoner transport workers, 5th Circuit rules
A plumbing company employee cleans an Atlanta police prisoner truck during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, on June 18, 2020. REUTERS / Elijah Nouvelage
A US appeals court ruled that exemption from overtime pay requirements for transportation workers may also apply to private prisoner transportation companies, although these are governed by a separate federal law.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Court of Appeals said Monday that the attorney general's power to regulate the private prisoner transportation company US Corrections LLC (USC) does not preclude seeking the exemption under the applicable Fair Labor Standards Act Employers overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
However, whether the Motor Carrier Act Exemption or MCA applies to certain categories of workers cannot be resolved through a motion for dismissal, and a federal judge in Texas was wrong in filing a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of USC employees, the court who has said discarded.
Moore & Associates attorneys in Houston, representing said plaintiff Dana White, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. North Carolina-based US Corrections and their attorneys at Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus in Little Rock, Arkansas, were also inactive.
In a 2019 complaint in a federal court in Austin, Texas, White alleged that she and other USC extradition officers who moved prisoners between facilities routinely worked more than 40 hours a week, but wrongly classified them as exempt from overtime pay had been.
USC dismissed the case, claiming the MCA exemption protected the company from paying drivers overtime under the FLSA.
The FLSA says the exemption applies to employers subject to DOT regulations, which set minimum skills and maximum hours of operation for drivers. One DOT rule states that the question of whether the exemption applies to an employee "depends on both the class to which his employer belongs and the class of work that is involved in the work of the employee".
White requested a partial summary judgment, countering that the 2000 Interstate Transport of Dangerous Criminals Act, known as Jeanna's Act, excluded the application of the exemption. The Jeanna Act gives the Attorney General the exclusive power to determine qualifications and hours of service for private transport workers of prisoners.
USC claimed that despite Jeanna's law, it was still subject to the general rules of DOT and the MCA exemption was applicable.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel joined the company in 2019 and dismissed the case.
The 5th Circle on Monday agreed with Yeakel that Jeanna's law did not preclude the application of the exemption.
"Jeanna's law establishes a basis for private prisoner transport companies," wrote Circuit Judge Cory Wilson, "but it does not replace the Secretary of Transportation's authority to regulate private transport company personnel, which also happens to fit within the MCA's definition."
While USC appropriately invoked the exemption as a defense, it had not yet carried the burden of proof that it applied to the company's employees, Wilson said. This question lends itself better to a summary judgment that allows the district court to examine more closely the work done by drivers, the judge wrote.
The jury consisted of Circuit Judges Jennifer Elrod and Kyle Duncan.
The case is White v US Corrections LLC, 5th Court of Appeals, No. 19-51074.
For white: Curt Hesse from Moore & Associates
For US corrections: Abbot Mehdizadegan von Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus
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