(a) Another large category of employees covered as ``engaged in
commerce'' is comprised of employees performing the work involved in the
maintenance, repair, or improvement of existing instrumentalities of
commerce. (See the cases cited in footnote 28 to Sec. 776.9. See also
the discussion of coverage of employees engaged in building and
construction work, in subpart B of this part.) Typical illustrations of
instrumentalities of commerce include railroads, highways, city streets,
pipe lines, telephone lines, electrical transmission lines, rivers,
streams, or other waterways over which interstate or foreign commerce
more or less regularly moves; airports; railroad, bus, truck, or
steamship terminals; telephone exchanges, radio and television stations,
post offices and express offices; bridges and ferries carrying traffic
moving in interstate or foreign commerce (even though within a single
State); bays, harbors, piers, wharves and docks used for shipping
between a State and points outside; dams, dikes, revetments and levees
which directly facilitate the uninterrupted movement of commerce by
enhancing or improving the usefulness of waterways, railways, and
highways through control of water depth, channels or flow in streams or
through control of flood waters; warehouses or distribution depots
devoted to the receipt and shipment of goods in interstate or foreign
commerce; ships, vehicles, and aircraft regularly used in transportation
of persons or goods in commerce; and similar fixed or movable facilities
on which the flow of interstate and foreign commerce depends.
(b) It is well settled that the work of employees involved in the
maintenance, repair, or improvement of such existing instrumentalities
of commerce is so closely related to interstate or foreign commerce as
to be in practice and in legal contemplation a part of it. Included
among the employees who are thus ``engaged in commerce'' within the
meaning of the Act are employees of railroads, telephone companies, and
similar instrumentalities who are engaged in maintenance-of-way work;
36 employees (including office workers, guards, watchmen,
etc.) engaged in work on contracts or projects for the maintenance,
repair, reconstruction or other improvement of such instrumentalities of
commerce as the transportation facilities of interstate railroads,
highways, waterways, or other interstate transportation facilities, or
interstate telegraph, telephone, or electrical transmission facilities
(see subpart B of this part); and employees engaged in the maintenance
or alteration and repair of ships 37 or trucks 38
used as instrumentalities of interstate or foreign commerce. Also,
employees have been held covered as engaged in commerce where they
perform such work as watching or guarding ships or vehicles which are
regularly used in commerce 39 or maintaining, watching, or
guarding warehouses, railroad or equipment yards, etc., where goods
moving in interstate commerce are temporarily held, 40 or
acting as porters, janitors, or in other maintenance capacities in bus
stations, railroad stations, airports, or other transportation
terminals. 41
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
36 Davis v. Rockton & Rion R.R., 65 F. Supp. 67 affirmed in
159 F. 2d 291 (C.A. 4); North Shore Corp. v. Barnett, 143 F. 2d 172
(C.A. 5); Palmer v. Howard, 12 Lab. Cas. (CCH) par. 63, 756 (W.D.
Tenn.); Williams v. Atlantic Coast Lines R.R. Co., 1 W.M. Cases 289
(E.D. N.C. 1940), 2 Labor Cases (CCH) par. 18, 564.
37 Slover v. Wathen, 140 F. 2d 258 (C.A. 4); Walling v.
Keansburg Steamboat Co., 162 F. 2d 405 (C.A. 3).
38 Boutell v. Walling, 327 U.S. 463; Morris v. McComb,
332 U.S. 422; Skidmore v. John J. Casale, Inc., 160 F. 2d 527 (C.A. 2),
certiorari denied 331 U.S. 812; Hertz Drivurself Stations v. United
States, 150 F. 2d 923 (C.A. 8); Walling v. Sturm & Sons, Inc., 6 W.H.
Cases 131 (D.N.J.) 10 Labor Cases (CCH) par. 62, 980.
As to exemptions from the overtime requirements for mechanics
employed by motor carriers, see part 782 of this chapter. For exemptions
applicable to retail or service establishments, see part 779 of this
chapter.
39 Slover v. Wathen, 140 F. 2d 258 (C.A. 4); Agosto v.
Rocafort, 5 W.H. Cases 176 (D.P.R.), 9 Labor Cases (CCH) par. 62, 610;
Cannon v. Miller, 155 F. 2d 500 (S. Ct. Wash.).
40 Engebretson v. E. J. Albrecht Co., 150 F. 2d 602 (C.A.
7); Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp. v. Keen, 157 F. 2d 310 (C.A. 8);
Walling v. Mutual Wholesale Food & Supply Co., 141 F. 2d 331 (C.A. 8);
Walling v. Sondock, 132 F. 2d 77 (C.A. 5); certiorari denied 318 U.S.
772; Reliance Storage & Insp. Co. v. Hubbard, 50 F. Supp. 1012 (W.D.
Va.); Walling v. Fox-Pelletier Detective Agency, 4 W.H. Cases 452 (W.D.
Tenn. 1944); 8 Labor Cases (CCH) par. 62, 219; McComb v. Russell Co., 9
W.H. Cases 258 (D. Miss. 1949), 17 Labor Cases (CCH) par. 65, 519.
41 Mornford v. Andrews, 151 F. 2d 511 (C.A. 5); Hargis v.
Wabash R. Co. 163 F. 2d 607 (C.A. 7); Walling v. Atlantic Greyhound
Corp., 61 F. Supp. 992 (E.D. S.C.); Rouch v. Continental Oil Co., 55 F.
Supp. 315 (D. Kans.); see also Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co.,
315 U.S. 386.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) On the other hand, work which is less immediately related to the
functioning of instrumentalities of commerce than is the case in the
foregoing examples may be too remote from interstate or foreign commerce
to establish coverage on the ground that the employee performing it is
``engaged in commerce.'' This has been held true, for example, of a cook
preparing meals for workmen who are repairing tracks over which
interstate trains operate,42 and of a porter caring for
washrooms and lockers in a garage which is not an instrumentality of
commerce, where trucks used both in intrastate and interstate commerce
are serviced.43
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
42 McLeod v. Threlkeld, 319 U.S. 491.
43 Skidmore v. John J. Casale, Inc., 160 F. 2d 527,
certiorari denied 331 U.S. 812 (use in interstate commerce of trucks
serviced was from 10 to 25 percent of total use).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(d) There are other situations in which employees are engaged ``in
commerce'' and therefore within the coverage of the Act because they
contribute directly to the movement of commerce by providing goods or
facilities to be used or consumed by instrumentalities of commerce in
the direct furtherance of their activities of transportation,
communication, transmission, or other movement in interstate or foreign
commerce. Thus, for example, employees are considered engaged ``in
commerce'' where they provide to railroads, radio stations, airports,
telephone exchanges, or other similar instrumentalities of commerce such
things as electric energy,44 steam, fuel, or water, which
are required for the movement of the commerce carried by
such instrumentalities.45 Such work is ``so related to the
actual movement of commerce as to be considered an essential and
indispensable part thereof, and without which it would be impeded or
impaired.'' 46
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 New Mexico Public Service Co. v. Engel, 145 F. 2d 636 (C.A.
10); Walling v. Connecticut Co., 154 F. 2d 552 (C.A. 2).
45 Such employees would also be covered as engaged in the
production of goods for commerce. See Lewis v. Florida Power & Light
Co., 154 F. 2d 751 (C.A. 5); Walling v. Connecticut Co., 154 F. 2d 552
(C.A. 2); also Sec. 776.21(b).
46 New Mexico Public Service Co. v. Engel, 145 F. 2d 636,
640 (C.A. 10).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
