Bank of America is facing a proposed class and collective action lawsuit that accuses the company of failing to pay certain employees for the time they spent preparing their computers and software systems before clocking in. The lawsuit was filed by former employee Tava Martin, who argues that these daily login and setup steps were required parts of the job and should have been counted as paid work time under federal law.
The case highlights a growing issue in today’s remote and digitized workplaces: long login processes, multi-layered security systems, and mandatory company tools that must be launched before the workday can officially begin. According to the complaint, these tasks routinely took several minutes each day and sometimes closer to thirty minutes when systems were running slowly.
What makes the situation more complex is that employees could not access the company’s timekeeping platform until all of these initial steps were completed. This meant the clock could not start until after the necessary preparations were already finished.
The Tasks at the Center of the Dispute
The lawsuit describes a detailed login routine that workers had to complete before starting their shifts. Employees needed to:
• Power up company-issued computers
• Unlock encrypted drives
• Verify identity using multi-factor authentication
• Log in through secure VPN connections
• Open and load internal business applications
Only after these steps were completed could workers clock in and begin what the company considered paid time.
The lawsuit claims that this process was not optional and was essential for employees to do their jobs. Workers could not answer emails, review cases, access support tools, or communicate with teams until all of these systems were up and running.
The complaint also notes that technical problems sometimes added to the time spent. If the VPN connection lagged or if software updates were required, the preparation period took longer. Despite this, the time still went unpaid, according to the filing.
Additional Time Lost Throughout the Workday
The lawsuit argues that this unpaid time was not limited to the start of shifts. During scheduled lunch breaks, systems frequently logged users out automatically for security reasons. When returning from break, employees often had to repeat several steps of the login process to regain access. The complaint estimates that this added at least three to five minutes of unpaid time most days.
At the end of the day, workers were required to properly close programs, log out of systems, and shut down their workstations. This extra routine reportedly took another two to three minutes. While each instance may seem small, the lawsuit argues that these minutes added up over weeks and months, resulting in a significant amount of unpaid labor.
Martin’s attorneys say that collectively, hundreds of workers likely lost substantial earnings because of these daily requirements.
Legal Basis for the Claims
The complaint relies on guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2008, which stated that time spent starting or preparing necessary tools for work could be considered compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This applies when the tasks are integral and indispensable to the primary work duties.
In this case, the argument is that employees could not perform job responsibilities without completing the login process first, making the time spent on those tasks part of their official workday.
Courts have reached different conclusions in similar lawsuits. Some have ruled that workers should be paid for booting up computers when the login process is directly tied to job duties. Others have found that if workers can perform other tasks during that time, the minutes may not count as compensable.
The outcome of this case may depend on how the court views the necessity and length of the login routine.
