Lawsuit Claims Walmart Warehouse Workers Owed Wages for Pre-Shift Work Activities

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A proposed class and collective action claims Walmart has failed to pay food distribution warehouse workers proper wages for pre-shift activities, such as donning protective gear and checking out equipment.

The lawsuit argues that employees at Wal-Mart Associates, Inc.’s roughly 44 food distribution warehouses, who are split into “dry” and “cold” sections, are required to perform certain pre-shift activities—such as checking out a mobile scanner and printer for the dry section or donning freezer gear for the cold section—for which they receive no wages.

According to the suit, workers who put in at least 40 hours per week are owed unpaid time-and-a-half overtime wages for the time they spend on pre-shift activities.

The plaintiff says he worked as a processor in both the dry and cold sections of the defendant’s Sparks, Nevada distribution center. The suit relays that the plaintiff is currently assigned to work four 10-hour shifts per week and required to be at his assigned station and ready to work at his shift start time.

Walmart requires the plaintiff and other dry section employees to retrieve a mobile scanner and printer from the system control window before arriving at their stations to start their shifts, according to the suit. The equipment, the case says, is “integral and indispensable” to a dry section warehouse worker in that it is used to inventory and label products for distribution to Walmart’s retail locations.

Per the case, Walmart has failed to compensate warehouse workers for the time they spend checking out their equipment and proceeding to their workstations despite the indispensable nature of the pre-shift tasks. The plaintiff estimates that he retrieves his equipment roughly 15 minutes before the start of his shift to make sure he has sufficient time to be ready to start work.

Prior to his dry section assignment in August 2020, the plaintiff worked in the cold section of Walmart’s distribution center, according to the suit. Pursuant to the retailer’s “ready for work” policy, the plaintiff and other cold section workers were required to don personal protective equipment, i.e., “freezer gear,” prior to the start of their shifts, the case says. The plaintiff states he was required to put on a RefrigiWear insulated bib, a RefrigiWear thermal jacket, a thermal hooded sweatshirt, a stocking hat, and wool socks before beginning his shift in the defendant’s freezer/refrigerator section. Per the case, the plaintiff and other workers were not paid for the time they spent donning protective gear before each shift, which the plaintiff estimates amounts to roughly 15 minutes per shift. 

The plaintiff claims that because he regularly worked at least 40 hours per week, he is entitled to 15 minutes of unpaid overtime wages for each shift during which he was required to perform pre-work activities.

Originally filed in Nevada state court, the lawsuit was removed to the state’s district court on January 29, 2021.

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