Amazon security screenings count as "hours worked" under Connecticut state employment law, and no legal exception permits the retailer to withhold pay for time spent on minimal matters at the end of a worker's shift, the state supreme court ruled unanimously on Thursday.
The Ninth Circuit zeroed in on timing Wednesday as a former Netflix worker pushed to keep her sexual harassment suit out of arbitration, appearing sympathetic to the streaming company's argument that her dispute began before a law banning mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims became effective.
The California Supreme Court's holding that courts should scrutinize difficult-to-read arbitration agreements but that "illegibility" does not render their substance so unfair as to make them unjust should remind employers to be careful with such pacts in wage and hour disputes, attorneys said.