DANNY FLORES; ROBERT BARADA; KEVIN WATSON; VY VAN; RAY LARA; DANE WOOLWINE; RIKIMARU NAKAMURA; CHRISTOPHER WENZEL; SHANNON CASILLAS; JAMES JUST; STEVE RODRIGUES; ENRIQUE DEANDA, Plaintiffs-Appellees/Cross-Appellants, and CRUZ HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff-Appellee, and GILBERT LEE; RENE LOPEZ, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF SAN GABRIEL, Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee., 824 F.3d 890

Summary

HOLDINGS: [1]-A city's cash-in-lieu of benefits payments to police officers were not properly excluded from the calculation of the regular rate of pay under 29 U.S.C.S. § 207(e)(2) because the payment was compensation for work; [2]-The cash-in-lieu of benefits payments were also not properly excluded from the calculation of the regular rate of pay under § 207(e)(4) because the city paid the unused benefits directly to its employees and not to a trustee or third person; [3]-The city satisfied the criteria for application of the § 207(k) exemption by adopting an eighty-hour/fourteen-day work period for its law enforcement officers and by paying overtime in accordance with that period since 1994; [4]-Plaintiffs were entitled to liquidated damages under 29 U.S.C.S. § 260 because the city failed to demonstrate that it attempted to comply with the FLSA in good faith.