Overtime Compensation for Food Inspector

An advance decision was requested by a Department of Agriculture certifying officer concerning a food inspector who claimed overtime compensation for performing various duties outside of her regular working hours. She filed a complaint alleging that, during a 6-month period, she spent approximately 50 hours of her own time performing duties required by her job for which she was not paid. These duties included changing clothes, cleaning equipment, and filling out forms. The certifying officer stated that, although he did not disagree that time spent completing paperwork was compensable, the time involved was minimal and there was sufficient time during the employee's workday to complete all required paperwork. Further, he stated that the clothes-changing and cleanup activities were not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because they were not indispensable to the performance of the employee's principal activity. According to Federal regulations, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is authorized to administer the provisions of FLSA. OPM investigated the matter and informed Agriculture that the employee was entitled to 46.75 hours of overtime based on estimates made by inspectors of the work performed on non-work time. The certifying officer submitted the matter to GAO because he was dissatisfied with the results of the OPM investigation. GAO held that, given the OPM procedure for processing complaints, including the opportunity for on-site investigations and a review of all pertinent evidence, it would not disturb the factual findings unless they were clearly erroneous, and the burden of proof is on the party challenging those findings. GAO concluded that there were no reasons to challenge the OPM decision. Therefore, the employee was entitled to the determined amount of overtime compensation.