(a) An employer's liabilities and obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to the "principal" activities his employees are employed to perform are not changed in any way by section 4 of the Portal Act, and time devoted to such activities must be taken into account in computing hours worked to the same extent as it would if the Portal Act had not been enacted. 53 But before it can be determined whether an activity is "preliminary or postliminary to (the) principal activity or activities" which the employee is employed to perform, it is generally necessary to determine what are such "principal" activities. 54
53 See §§790.4 through
790.6 of this bulletin and part
785 of this chapter, which discusses the principles for determining hours
worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended.
54 Although certain
"preliminary" and "postliminary" activities are expressly mentioned in the
statute (see §790.7(b) ), they
are described with reference to the place where principal activities are
performed. Even as to these activities, therefore, identification of certain
other activities as "principal" activities is necessary.
The use by Congress of the plural form "activities" in
the statute makes it clear that in order for an activity to be a "principal"
activity, it need not be predominant in some way over all other activities
engaged in by the employee in performing his job; 55
rather, an employee may, for purposes of the Portal-to-Portal Act be engaged in
several "principal" activities during the workday. The "principal" activities
referred to in the statute are activities which the employee is "employed to
perform"; 56 they do not include noncompensable
"walking, riding, or traveling" of the type referred to in section 4 of the
Act. 57 Several guides to determine what constitute
"principal activities" was suggested in the legislative debates. One of the
members of the conference committee stated to the House of Representatives that
"the realities of industrial life," rather than arbitrary standards, "are
intended to be applied in defining the term 'principal activity or
activities'," and that these words should "be interpreted with due regard to
generally established compensation...
