Is “Boot-Up” Time Compensable?

Have you ever been frustrated by the length of time it takes for your computer to boot up? In light of recent lawsuits, some employers may be, as well. According to an article in the National Law Journal there has been a recent surge in litigation over whether employees should be compensated for time spent booting up their computers and logging out at the end of the day. Workers at companies such as AT&T, UnitedHealth Group, Inc., and Cigna Corp., have all sued claiming they should be compensated for the time, which they allege can be 15 to 30 minutes, where their computers are booting up or logging out. Underlying these lawsuits appears to be a disputed factual issue: whether the affected workers are performing work-related tasks when they are waiting for their computers, or whether they are engaged in non-work related tasks such as smoking or talking with co-workers.   A link can be found here to the article.