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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Ninth Circuit Backtracks on Amazon Pay Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The Ninth Circuit reversed itself on Thursday for the second time in the same case, tossing its dismissal of a class action over unpaid security checks at an Amazon.com fulfillment center.

In 2010, workers employed to fill Amazon.com orders from a Las Vegas warehouse owned by Integrity Staffing Solutions sued their employer over its practice of making them wait, without pay, at lunch time and at the end of their shifts while they waited to go through a security check.

Lead plaintiffs Jesse Busk and Laurie Castro said because they had to wait as long as a half hour to complete the security check after work, and about 10 minutes during their lunch breaks, not paying them for their time was a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt dismissed the case, but was later reversed by the Ninth Circuit.

The case ultimately made its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in December 2014 ruled against the workers and remanded the matter for further consideration. Seven months later, in light of that ruling, a Ninth Circuit panel vacated its earlier ruling and affirmed a lower court's dismissal of the case.

But on Thursday, explaining that it had been unaware of recent developments in the multi-district litigation when it revisited the case, and that its latest ruling may confuse the ongoing process, a three-judge appellate panel reversed itself again.

"We recognize that there is a possibility that our July 7, 2015, order could be misconstrued as bearing on the merits of the pending litigation. Therefore, we vacate and withdraw our order," the unsigned opinion said.

Representatives of Integrity Staffing Solutions were not immediately available for comment.

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