FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

CARIENE CADENA; ANDREW No. 21-16522 GONZALES, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, D.C. No. 2:18-cv-00233-APG-DJA Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v. OPINION CUSTOMER CONNEXX LLC; JANONE, INC.; DOES, 1 through 50, inclusive,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada Andrew P. Gordon, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted June 14, 2022 San Francisco, California Before: Jay S. Bybee, Consuelo M. Callahan, and Daniel P. Collins, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Bybee SUMMARY *

Labor Law

The panel reversed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of defendant Customer Connexx LLC and remanded for further proceedings in a collective action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act by call center workers.

The workers provided customer service and scheduling to customers over a “soft phone,” operated only through their employer-provided computers. They alleged that their time booting up and shutting down their computers was an integral and indispensable part of their principal duties, making the time compensable under the FLSA, as amended by the Portal-to-Portal Act.

The panel concluded that the district court correctly identified the workers’ principal duties as answering customer phone calls and scheduling appliance pickups. Agreeing with the Tenth Circuit, the panel held that the workers’ duties could not be performed without turning on and booting up their work computers, and having a functioning computer was necessary before the workers could receive calls and schedule appointments. Accordingly, turning on the computers was integral and indispensable to the workers’ duties and was a principal activity under the FLSA. It therefore was compensable.

The panel reversed the district court’s summary judgment on the FLSA claim and remanded to the district court for consideration of whether time spent shutting down computers was compensable, whether the time spent booting up and down the computers was not compensable under the de minimis doctrine, and whether Connexx had no knowledge of the alleged overtime such that it was not in violation of the FLSA’s overtime requirements.

* This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. COUNSEL

Joshua D. Buck (argued), Mark R. Thierman, and Leah L. Jones, Thierman Buck LLP, Reno, Nevada, for Plaintiffs-Appellants. Veronica T. Hunter (argued) and Paul T. Trimmer, Jackson Lewis PC, Las Vegas, Nevada, for Defendants-Appellees. Frances Y. Ma (argued), Attorney; Rachel Goldberg, Counsel for Appellate Litigation; Jennifer S. Brand, Associate Solicitor; Seema Nanda, Solicitor of Labor; United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, D.C.; for Amicus Curiae Secretary of Labor. BYBEE, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs-Appellants Cariene Cadena and similarly situated employees (Appellants) are employed by Customer Connexx LLC (Connexx) to operate a call center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Appellants’ primary responsibilities are to provide customer service and scheduling to customers over a “soft phone,” operated only through their employer-provided computers. We are asked to determine whether their time booting up and shutting down their computers is an integral and indispensable part of their principal duties, making the time compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 201–19. The district court granted summary judgment for Conn