It's based on the wording of a 1947 law, maybe it's time to change that law. I can see the need for clarity here though. Should employers pay their workers for time spent commuting to a job site/office? Can I live three hours away and make a cool 6 hours of extra wages listening to audio books on my way to/from work?
Well, maybe, maybe not, but once you're on the job site, you're entitled to be paid for whatever the employer decides to do with you, like security screenings.
Yes they should be expected to pay for that, it's your time that you can't use for whatever you want because now you have to spend it getting to work. I think it would have to be limited to something reasonable, but yes, unequivocally your employer should be on the hook for that. I believe I should be paid for the imposition on my time.
I also think that forcing hourly people to take a 30 minute unpaid lunch needs to be fixed, I absolutely hated the one job I've had where this was enforced. I would have much rather just worked a straight 8 hours so I wasn't robbed of 30 minutes of my life every day.
Both of these are hard to fix and I don't know how to implement it, but they definitely should be.
