Full opinion text
ORDER ROBERT W. PRATT, Chief Judge. Before the Court is a Motion for Summary Judgment, filed November 30, 2009 by Catholic Health Initiatives-Iowa, Corp. (hereinafter “Defendant” or “Mercy”). Clerk’s No. 90. Michael Haviland (“Haviland”), Jamie Aiken (“Aiken”), and Jeremy Patchin (“Patchin”) (collectively “Plaintiffs”) filed a resistance on March 25, 2010. Clerk’s No. 129. Mercy filed a reply on April 8, 2010. Clerk’s No. 141. The matter is fully submitted. I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY Haviland, individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated employees, filed a petition in the Iowa District Court for Polk County on December 20, 2006, alleging that Defendant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. (the “FLSA”), and the Iowa Wage Payment Collection Act, Iowa Code Chapter 91A et seq. (“IWPCA”). See Clerk’s No. 1-1. On January 9, 2007, Defendant removed the case to federal court, pursuant 28 U.S.C. § 1331. See Clerk’s No. 1. Subsequently, Haviland filed an Amended Complaint wherein Aiken and Patchin were added as named representative Plaintiffs. See Clerk’s No. 40. In their Amended Complaint, Plaintiffs, current and former private security officers (“PSOs”) for Mercy, state that they perform various security duties for three separate Mercy hospital locations, Mercy Main, Mercy Capitol, and Mercy Franklin. Am. Compl. ¶ 18. Plaintiffs’ regular duties at the various locations “include monitoring facilities, responding to emergencies, and patrolling the building surrounding the hospital.” Id. ¶ 17. While Plaintiffs are supposed to receive an unpaid thirty-minute meal break on each shift, the Amended Complaint alleges that, “[w]hen Plaintiffs are scheduled to work at either Mercy Capitol or Mercy Franklin, they do not receive a mealtime break.” Id. ¶ 19. More specifically, Plaintiffs contend that, though they are permitted to eat at both Mercy Capitol and Mercy Franklin, the restrictions on their freedom are such that they are, in actuality, continuing to work throughout their thirty-minute lunch breaks. Id. ¶¶ 20-25. Accordingly, Plaintiffs request that Mercy be required to pay them “the amount respectively due them for overtime compensation and interest, liquidated damages, and costs,” along with reasonable attorneys fees, under both the FLSA and the IWPCA. Id. at 4-5. On April 10, 2007, Plaintiffs requested class action certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 for their IWP-CA claim, and collective action certification under § 216(b) for their FLSA claim. Clerk’s No. 18. In an Order dated October 19, 2007, the Court denied class certification for the IWPCA claim on the basis that the commonality and typicality requirements of Rule 23(a)(2)-(3) were not satisfied. Clerk’s No. 49 at 9-11. The Court, however, granted conditional collective certification of the FLSA action. Clerk’s No. 49. Although forty-four potential collective members were initially identified, only nine ultimately opted to participate in the collective action. See Clerk’s Nos. 40, 56-59. II. FACTS Mercy staffs its three locations, Mercy Main, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy Capitol, with public safety officers twenty-four hours per day. Pis.’ Statement of Disputed Facts (hereinafter “Pis.’ Facts”) ¶ 7. At some point in 2009, Mercy Capitol closed, but Defendant opened another facility known as Mercy West Lakes, which also staffs a PSO twenty-four hours per day. Id. ¶ 8. At any given time, Mercy Main staffs a dispatcher and three PSOs per shift. Id. ¶¶ 13-14. According to Plaintiffs, this staffing arrangement generally makes it possible for PSOs working at the Mercy Main campus to leave work or take a meal period knowing that their job duties would be covered by another officer. Id. ¶ 18. Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes, however, are (or were) each staffed by only one PSO per shift. Id. ¶¶ 15-17. Plaintiffs are all PSOs employed by Defendant for various time periods from December 20, 2003 through the present day. Id. ¶ 1. Plaintiffs contend that Defendant “employed [PSOs] and contracted with them to perform scheduled tasks,” which Plaintiffs identify as: “engage to wait to perform scheduled tasks, engage to respond to incidents, engage to wait to respond to incidents, monitor; and employ them to be a presence in the physical locations at the ready to respond to incidents and otherwise act as a deterrent to ensure public safety.” Id. ¶ 2. The evidence in this case makes clear, however, that Plaintiffs had significant amounts of free time to engage in various personal pursuits during their shifts working as PSOs for Mercy. See Def.’s Statement of Undisputed Facts (hereinafter “Def.’s Facts”) ¶ 13; Pis.’ Facts ¶ 93. Haviland, for instance, testified in his deposition that, while on duty as a PSO, he has gone to lunch with other officers, eaten in the cafeteria, had food delivered, brought food from home, left Mercy’s premises to get a snack or to smoke, studied and typed reports, surfed the internet, sent and received personal email, watched movies on the internet, played on-line games, played cards, and read books and newspapers. Def.’s App. at 16, 18, 19, 23, 30. Likewise, while on duty, Patchin admits that he went to the hospital cafeteria, had food delivered, brought food from home, accessed pornographic or adult-content web sites, watched DVDs or movies, played cards, left Mercy’s premises “daily” to go to Quik Trip to smoke and buy a soda, played chess, and accessed the internet for personal use anywhere from one-half hour to two hours per day on a typical shift. Id. at 30-34. Aiken also reports that he has used time during his shifts to eat, have food delivered, study, use the internet, go to Quik Trip, play online games, look at pornographic materials, read magazines and books, make phone calls, study, check personal email, and surf the internet. Id. at 3-7. Video surveillance and Plaintiffs’ internet logs confirm that Plaintiffs engaged in various personal pursuits while on duty. See id. at 43-196 (log of Aiken’s on-duty internet usage for November 2006); 197-479 (log of Haviland’s on-duty internet usage for March 2007); 480-565 (log of Patchin’s on-duty internet usage for July 2006); 566-71 (video surveillance stills showing Haviland eating, reading the newspaper, and balancing his checkbook). PSOs are scheduled to work for eight and one-half hour shifts, but are only paid for eight hours. Pis.’ Facts ¶ 10. The remaining half-hour is automatically deducted from the calculation of an employee’s hours worked, and is intended to be a non-working, unpaid meal period. Id. ¶ 11. Mercy has two written policies that refer to meal periods or lunches. First, Mercy’s general corporate policy provides: A. Employees who are scheduled to work 8 or more hours should receive one 30-minute unpaid meal period whenever possible. B. Employees working shifts that are less than 8 hours can take a meal break if scheduled to do so. The 30-minute meal break is without pay. C. When an employee is unable to take a 30-minute meal break without disruptions caused by work, or if the meal break is disrupted by work responsibilities, the supervisor must be notified and notation of no meal will be made at the time clock at the end of shift. This time will count as worked hours. D. If an employee is unable to take a meal period due to work responsibilities, an employee may not choose to leave work one-half hour early. The supervisor, however, may authorize the employee to do this if work volumes are sufficiently covered. This practice is not encouraged as a solution for missed meal breaks. E. Employees may leave the hospital premises during meal periods. Nonexempt employees must punch out/in when leaving and returning to work. F. If the employee exceeds the 30 minute limit or fails to punch out and/or in on the time clock, he/she may be subject to disciplinary action. G. An employee that is leaving the hospital premises for a meal, and is required to wear hospital provided scrubs, must change from and to scrub attire within the 30-minute meal period. Id. ¶ 64; Def.’s App. at 1. A more specific policy, directly applicable to Mercy’s PSOs, is entitled, “Security/Safety Department Policy” on “Overtime Authorization^],” and states: To provide the Security Director with a means of monitoring and managing the Overtime Program, and to insure accountability the following procedures are to be used when it becomes necessary for Security Personnel to work overtime. It is the policy of the Security Department to avoid situations that make overtime necessary, at the same time recognizing that at times, overtime is unavoidable. Through proper scheduling and planning of staff use of paid time off, most overtime situations can be avoided. This includes the approval of short notice vacations, or any P.T.O. requests that will lower staffing levels below the minimum of three officers per shift. Each employee is responsible for making an effort to take a lunch break. If it appears that there will be insufficient time to break for lunch, the employee should arrangement [sic] for relief. The Shift Supervisor may then elect to provide relief, allow the employee to leave work and clock-out 30 minutes prior to the shift’s end, or authorize overtime. The hospital has a cafeteria and vending area which provides refreshments. Employees may also bring food if they like. Therefore inability to get to the cafeteria does not constitute a missed luhch break. Pis.’ Facts ¶ 65; Def.’s App. at 40-41. On November 21, 2006, Mercy’s PSOs were reminded of Mercy’s meal period policy in an email sent by Tony Biancalana: A friendly reminder. As outlined in policy, each employee is to get a 30 minute lunch break. Because of the service line DPS provides, this is not always possible. If on any occasion you do not receive a 30 minute lunch break, it is your responsibility to contact your supervisor, lead or charge person of this so that they can work out relief, adjust the shift or document such for appropriate compensation in the Kronos [time clock] system. If any of you feel that you have not received your 30 minute lunch break and were not compensated appropriately, please contact Lisa Mitchell in Human Resources Pis.’ App. at 177. Plaintiffs were aware that Mercy’s policy provided that PSOs were supposed to take a thirty minute meal break at some point during their shift, and that if they were unable to obtain one, they should report it to a supervisor to obtain compensation for interrupted meal breaks. Indeed, Haviland and Aiken both reported missed meal breaks and received compensation under Mercy’s system, while Patch-in testified that he was aware he could do SO. In addition to its policies requiring employees to notify a supervisor if they are not able to get a lunch break, Defendant maintains an incident reporting system, known as the AcTrack system, wherein significant PSO activities are recorded. See Def.’s Facts ¶ 4. Defendant characterizes the AcTrack system as a “second, redundant tracking system on which any significant interruptions are to be recorded, called incident reports.” Id. ¶ 4. Plaintiffs testified in their depositions that most PSO activities, and certainly any significant incidents that may occur during a PSO’s shift, are to be recorded in the AcTrack system. See Def.’s App. at 8-9 (Aiken testifying that PSOs were to make incident reports in the AcTrack system for things such as “stolen items, trips and falls” and “lost property”), 22 (Haviland testifying that anything that could result in “liability, litigation, or a loss to the hospital” was to be recorded in the AcTrack system); 37 (Patchin testifying that he was required to make an incident report in the AcTrack system any time “there was a patient restraint,” when items were “lost and found,” and to deal with “valuables”). In some instances, PSOs contacted dispatch to make the AcTrack entries, while in other instances, the PSOs were responsible to make AcTrack entries themselves. See id. at 10, 37. III. STANDARD OF REVIEW The term “summary judgment” is something of a misnomer. See Hornby, D. Brock, Summary Judgment Without Illusions, 13 Green Bag 2d 273 (Spring 2010). It “suggests a judicial process that is simple, abbreviated, and inexpensive,” while in reality, the process is complicated, time-consuming, , and expensive. Id. At 273, 281. The complexity of the process, however, reflects the “complexity of law and life.” Id. at 281. “Since the constitutional right to jury trial is at stake,” judges must engage in a “paper-intensive and often tedious” process to “assiduously avoid deciding disputed facts or inferences” in a quest to determine whether a record contains genuine factual disputes that necessitate a trial. Id. at 281-82. Despite the seeming inaptness of the name, and the desire for some in the plaintiffs’ bar to be rid of it, the summary judgment process is well-accepted and appears “here to stay.” Id. at 281. Indeed, “judges are duty-bound to resolve legal disputes, no matter how close the call.” Id. at 287. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(b) provides that “[a] party against whom relief is sought may move at any time ... for summary judgment on all or part of the claim.” “[SJummary judgment is an extreme remedy, and one which is not to be granted unless the movant has established his right to a judgment with such clarity as to leave no room for controversy and that the other party is not entitled to recover under any discernible circumstances.” Robert Johnson Grain Co. v. Chem. Interchange Co., 541 F.2d 207, 209 (8th Cir.1976) (citing Windsor v. Bethesda Gen. Hosp., 523 F.2d 891, 893 n. 5 (8th Cir.1975)). The purpose of summary judgment is not “to cut litigants off from their right of trial by jury if they really have issues to try.” Poller v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc., 368 U.S. 464, 467, 82 S.Ct. 486, 7 L.Ed.2d 458 (1962) (quoting Sartor v. Ark. Natural Gas Corp., 321 U.S. 620, 627, 64 S.Ct. 724, 88 L.Ed. 967 (1944)). Rather, it is designed to avoid “useless, expensive and time-consuming trials where there is actually no genuine, factual issue remaining to be tried.” Anderson v. Viking Pump Div., Houdaille Indus., Inc., 545 F.2d 1127, 1129 (8th Cir.1976) (citing Lyons v. Bd. of Educ., 523 F.2d 340, 347 (8th Cir.1975)). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c) mandates the entry of summary judgment upon motion after there has been adequate time for discovery. Summary judgment can be entered against a party if that party fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to its case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Summary judgment is appropriately granted when the record, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and giving that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences, shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact, and that the moving party is therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Harlston v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 37 F.3d 379, 382 (8th Cir.1994). The Court does not weigh the evidence, nor does it make credibility determinations. The Court only determines whether there are any disputed issues and, if so, whether those issues are both genuine and material. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Wilson v. Myers, 823 F.2d 253, 256 (8th Cir.1987) (“Summary judgment is not designed to weed out dubious claims, but to eliminate those claims with no basis in material fact.”) (citing Weight Watchers of Quebec, Ltd. v. Weight Watchers Int'l, Inc., 398 F.Supp. 1047, 1055 (E.D.N.Y.1975)). In a summary judgment motion, the moving party bears the initial burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact based on the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and affidavits, if any. See Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505. If the moving party has carried its burden, the nonmoving party must then go beyond its original pleadings and designate specific facts showing that there remains a genuine issue of material fact that needs to be resolved by a trial. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)(2). This additional showing can be by affidavits, depositions, answers to interrogatories, or the admissions on file. Id.; Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Anderson, 477 U.S. at 257, 106 S.Ct. 2505. “[T]he mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat a motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505. An issue is “genuine,” if the evidence is sufficient to persuade a reasonable jury to return a verdict for the nonmoving party. See id. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505. “As to materiality, the substantive law will identify which facts are material.... Factual disputes that are irrelevant or unnecessary will not be counted.” Id. Courts do not treat summary judgment as if it were a paper trial. Therefore, a “district court’s role in deciding the motion is not to sift through the evidence, pondering the nuances and inconsistencies, and decide whom to believe.” Waldridge v. Am. Hoechst Corp., 24 F.3d 918, 920 (7th Cir.1994). In a motion for summary judgment, the job of a court is only to decide, based on the evidentiary record that accompanies the moving and resistance filings of the parties, whether there really is any material dispute of fact that still requires a trial. See id. (citing Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505 and 10A Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2712 (3d ed.1998)). It is the responsibility of the parties to provide the evidence necessary for this assessment. Id. at 921. IV. LAW AND ANALYSIS Plaintiffs appear to make two alternative claims in this action. First, they assert that regardless of how much time they had to engage in personal pursuits while on duty, they were never actually relieved from their duties at the Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes locations because Mercy only staffed one officer at each of those locations. Id. ¶ 19. Specifically, Plaintiffs contend that PSOs at Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes were required to remain on Mercy’s premises during their lunch hour, were required to carry radios, and were required to respond to any emergencies that arose. Thus, according to Plaintiffs, they performed the exact same job duties during their half-hour lunch break that they were required to perform during the paid portions of their shifts, namely, “responding to tasks, waiting to respond to tasks, responding to incidents and waiting to respond to incidents, and being a physical presence.” Id. ¶ 75. Accordingly, Plaintiffs “seek recovery for every automatically deducted meal period that they worked that was not reimbursed” at Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes. Id. ¶¶ 40-41. Alternatively, Plaintiffs contend that Mercy failed to pay them for discrete instances where their meal periods were interrupted by work duties. A. The Purposes of the FLSA and Relevant Statutory Language In evaluating an FLSA claim, the Court must consider the language of the statute itself, the corresponding interpretive regulations, and the construction given to these by Supreme Court and Eighth Circuit precedent. The Court must also carefully consider the legislative purposes of the FLSA in order to determine whether the facts of this case, and the harms claimed by Plaintiffs, are the kind of facts contemplated by Congress and the types of harms which it intended to prevent or rectify by enacting the FLSA. To fully understand the purpose of FLSA, the statute must be considered against the extreme conditions it was created to remedy. In the 1930s: A twelve hour day and seven day week [was] not unusual in restaurants, trucking service, gas filling stations, and retail stores.... A large chain store in Atlanta, Georgia, was requiring employees to work from 63 to 70 hours a week ... and similar reports came from stores in other industrial centers. A knitting mill company in Long Island City, N.Y., lengthened its working week to 60 to 72 hours when no longer bound by the [National Recovery Administration] code. Scott D. Miller, Revitalizing the FLSA, 19 Hofstra Lab. & Emp. L.J. 1, 20 (2001) (quoting Labor Research Ass’n, Labor Fact Book III 63-64 (1936)). In 1938, Congress enacted the FLSA in response to extreme Depression era “labor conditions [that were] detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health.... ” Lyon v. Whisman, 45 F.3d 758, 763 (3d Cir.1995) (citing 29 U.S.C. § 202); see also Barrentine v. Ark.-Best Freight Sys., Inc., 450 U.S. 728, 739, 101 S.Ct. 1437, 67 L.Ed.2d 641 (1981) (“The principal congressional purpose in enacting the [FLSA] was to protect all covered workers from substandard wages and oppressive working hours, ‘labor conditions [that are] detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being of workers.’ ”) (quoting 29 U.S.C. § 202(a)); Monahan v. County of Chesterfield, Va., 95 F.3d 1263, 1267 (4th Cir.1996) (stating that the FLSA was enacted “as the result of Depression era high unemployment and abusive working conditions”); Mechmet v. Four Seasons Hotels, Ltd., 825 F.2d 1173, 1176 (7th Cir.1987) (noting that workers of the pre-FLSA era endured such long hours that it had a potentially profound negative impact on their health, and arguably contributed to an unacceptable increase in workplace accidents). The legislative history of the FLSA similarly articulates that “the prime purpose of the legislation was to aid the unprotected, unorganized and lowest paid of the nation’s working population; that is, those employees who lacked sufficient bargaining power to secure for themselves a minimum subsistence wage.” Brooklyn Sav. Bank v. O’Neil, 324 U.S. 697, 707, 65 S.Ct. 895, 89 L.Ed. 1296 (1945) (providing numerous citations of relevant legislative history documents). More specifically, the FLSA was designed “ ‘to extend the frontiers of social progress’ by ‘insuring to all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.’ ” A.H. Phillips, Inc. v. Walling, 324 U.S. 490, 493, 65 S.Ct. 807, 89 L.Ed. 1095 (1945) (quoting Message of President Roosevelt to Congress, May 24, 1934). Because the foremost purpose of the FLSA was to stop the exploitation of workers by management, the provisions of the Act are considered “ ‘remedial and humanitarian in purpose.’ ” Goldberg v. Wade Lahar Const. Co., 290 F.2d 408, 415 (8th Cir.1961) (quoting Tenn. Coal, Iron & R.R. Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 321 U.S. 590, 597, 607, 64 S.Ct. 698, 88 L.Ed. 949 (1944)); Southland Gasoline Co. v. Bayley, 319 U.S. 44, 48, 63 S.Ct. 917, 87 L.Ed. 1244 (1943) (noting that Congress was concerned that “persons should not be permitted to take part in interstate commerce while operating with substandard labor conditions”) (citing United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 115, 61 S.Ct. 451, 85 L.Ed. 609 (1941)). In attempting to effectuate these remedial and humanitarian purposes, the FLSA proposed to raise labor standards “by establishing minimum wages, discouraging unusually long work weeks, and eliminating oppressive child labor.” Kelley Jordan, Note, FLSA Restrictions on Volunteerism: The Institutional & Individual Costs in a Changing Economy, 78 Cornell L.Rev. 302, 311 (1993) (stating that Congress intended that the FLSA would “affect only the most poorly paid and overworked employees”) (citing H.R.Rep. No. 1452, 75th Cong., 1st Sess., at 9 (1937)). Today, the “‘[t]he two central themes of the FLSA are its minimum wage and overtime requirements!’ ” Monahan, 95 F.3d at 1267 (citing Arnold v. Arkansas, 910 F.Supp. 1385, 1392 (E.D.Ark.1995)). Title 29, United States Code, § 207(a)(1) provides that “no employer shall employ any of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce ... for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.” Section 216(b) provides that any employer who violates the provisions of § 207 “shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their ... unpaid overtime compensation ... and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.” Section 216 further provides that an “action to recover the liability prescribed in [§ 216(b) ] may be maintained against any employer ... in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees for and in behalf of himself or themselves and other employees similarly situated.” In such individual or collective actions under the FLSA, the Court may additionally “allow a reasonable attorney’s fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action.” 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). While the FLSA requires that employees be paid for all hours worked, and be paid overtime compensation for working hours in excess of forty per week, the Act does not define the term “work” or otherwise clarify what constitutes “working hours.” Title 29, C.F.R. § 785.19, however, makes clear that “bona fide meal periods are not worktime.” The fighting issue in the present case is whether Plaintiffs’ meal breaks were “bona fide meal periods,” within the meaning of the FLSA and corresponding regulations and case law. If Plaintiffs were receiving “bona fide meal periods,” Defendant was entirely within its rights to deny them compensation for such periods. If, on the other hand, Plaintiffs’ meal breaks were not “bona fide meal periods,” Defendant would be obligated to provide them overtime compensation for such periods. In order to survive Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiffs must demonstrate that there are genuine issues of material fact on at least one of their two alternative theories, i.e., Plaintiffs must show a genuine issue of material fact that: 1) Mercy’s meal break compensation policy is, as a whole, violative of the FLSA, or 2) that Mercy failed to properly compensate Plaintiffs for all hours actually worked under the FLSA. B. Is Mercy’s Meal Break Policy as a Whole Unlawful Under the FLSA? Plaintiffs’ central assertion in this lawsuit is that Mercy’s meal break policy, at least with respect to the Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes locations, is a per se unlawful violation of the FLSA because PSOs at those locations work alone and are never fully relieved from duty by another officer. See Pis.’ Br. at 14-20. Plaintiffs argue that the default deduction of thirty minutes for lunch out of each 8.5 hour shift leads to a systemic daily underpayment of all PSOs at any site where complete relief is not provided. Id. Plaintiffs’ argument in this regard is not about how well Mercy’s “no lunch” reimbursement system may or may not function when employees specifically report a missed lunch break. Rather, it is a claim that PSOs working at the Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes locations are the victims of systemic, structural undercompensation that is built into the administration of Mercy’s policy, and that this undercompensation happens automatically without many or most employees even being aware of it. Pis.’ Response to Def.’s Facts ¶ 6 (“Mercy directed employees to take a meal break but failed to provide them with an understanding of their rights, and failed to provide them with the tools to obtain relief from their job duties as required by law and by Mercy policies.”). Indeed, Plaintiffs contend that they were not aware that they were being chronically underpaid, because they did not understand that they were legally entitled to be paid for any meal period where complete relief was not provided or where they were still performing some job duties during the meal period. See id. ¶¶ 6-7 (“Plaintiffs were not given the knowledge to understand that they had a right to be relieved from time they were engaged to wait nor were they provided the tools to obtain relief.”); ¶ 21 (“The meal period does not have to be interrupted in order for it to be compensable when the employee is still performing his regular job duties.”). To be clear, Plaintiffs’ arguments are not specifically about whether the Plaintiffs experienced actual interruptions to their meal breaks on any particular day, but rather whether the conditions of the meal breaks, in general, were such that Mercy can be found to be in violation of the FLSA for knowingly failing to compensate Plaintiffs for time spent “working” within the meaning of the FLSA. “It is a fact that an employer who knows or should have known that an employee is or was working overtime is obligated to pay overtime.” Jerzak v. City of South Bend, 996 F.Supp. 840, 845 (N.D.Ind.1998). “Moreover, an employer who is armed with this knowledge cannot stand idly by and allow an employee to perform overtime work without proper compensation, even if the employee does not make a claim for the overtime compensation.” Id. (citing Forrester v. Roth’s I.G.A. Foodliner, Inc., 646 F.2d 413, 414 (9th Cir.1981), and Mumbower v. Callicott, 526 F.2d 1183 (8th Cir.1975)). To prove their claim that all meal periods at Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes were compensable, Plaintiffs must demonstrate sufficient evidence that, if submitted to a jury, could reasonably lead to a conclusion that Plaintiffs, by virtue of the restrictions Mercy imposed on their meal periods at those locations, were “working” during their unpaid thirty-minute meal periods. See Hertz v. Woodbury Co., Iowa, 566 F.3d 775, 784 (8th Cir.2009) (“[Ujnder the FLSA, the employee bears the burden to show that his or her mealtimes were compensable work.”); Birdwell v. City of Gadsden, Ala., 970 F.2d 802, 807 (11th Cir.1992) (“Whether a certain set of facts and circumstances constitute work for purposes of the FLSA is a question of law.”). In support of their legal position in this case, Plaintiffs rely extensively on 29 C.F.R. § 785.19, asserting that the regulation is “quite clear that employees must be relieved from duty while on lunch breaks.” Pis.’ Br. at 15. Section 785.19 provides: (a) Bona fide meal periods. Bona fide meal periods are not worktime. Bona fide meal periods do not include coffee breaks or time for snacks. These are rest periods. The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals. Ordinarily 30 minutes or more is long enough for a bona fide meal period. A shorter period may be long enough under special conditions. The employee is not relieved if he is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. For example, an office employee who is required to eat at his desk or a factory worker who is required to be at his machine is working while eating. (b) Where no permission to leave premises. It is not necessary that an employee be permitted to leave the premises if he is otherwise completely freed from duties during the meal period. The Court agrees with Plaintiffs that if the “complete relief’ standard of § 785.19 were the governing legal standard, Plaintiffs would have a strong factual foundation to survive summary judgment. Indeed, Plaintiffs would arguably have grounds to bring their own summary judgment motion because Defendant does not seriously dispute that Plaintiffs were never “completely relieved,” in the form of being replaced by another officer for the length of the meal period, from job duties at the Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes locations. However, as will be discussed further infra, the “completely relieved” standard of § 785.19 is not the governing legal standard. 1. Applicable standard: “Complete relief’ versus “predominant benefit.” The most important cases interpreting the FLSA and expounding upon what constitutes “work” under the Act were decided by the Supreme Court in 1944, just six years after Congress enacted the FLSA. In Armour & Co. v. Wantock, 323 U.S. 126, 65 S.Ct. 165, 89 L.Ed. 118 (1944), the Supreme Court considered whether time “spent on the employer’s premises as fire guards subject to call, but otherwise put to such personal use as sleeping or recreation” constituted compensable “working” time under the FLSA. Armour, 323 U.S. at 127, 65 S.Ct. 165. The employees at issue in Armour were firefighters who “clocked-in” for a normal nine-hour shift (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), with a half-hour for lunch, performing various inspection, cleaning, and maintenance duties. Armour, 323 U.S. at 127, 65 S.Ct. 165. At the end of their shift, the employees “clocked-out,” but were required to “remain on call in the fire hall, provided by the Company and located on its property,” until the following morning at 8:00 a.m., when they again “clocked in” to commence normal working duties. Id. During the “on-call” evening hours, employees were required to remain on-site and to attend to any emergency or maintenance matters that may arise. Id. Otherwise, employees were free to spend “on-call” hours eating, sleeping, or entertaining themselves “pretty much as they chose.” Id. at 128, 65 S.Ct. 165. In affirming the lower courts’ findings that the “on-call” .hours were compensable “working” time under the FLSA, the Court noted that “ ‘work or employment ... as those words are commonly used,’ ” means “ ‘physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.’ ” Id. at 132, 65 S.Ct. 165 (emphasis added, quoting Tenn. Coal, 321 U.S. at 598, 64 S.Ct. 698). The Court emphasized, however, that this definitional language was “not intended as a limitation on the [FLSA]”: [A]n employer, if he chooses, may hire a man to do nothing, or to do nothing but wait for something to happen. Refraining from other activity often is a factor of instant readiness to serve, and idleness plays a part in all employments in a stand-by capacity. Readiness to serve may be hired, quite as much as service itself, and time spent lying in wait for threats to the safety of the employer’s property may be treated by the parties as a benefit to the employer. Whether time is spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit or for the employee’s is a question dependent upon all the circumstances of the case. Id. at 133, 65 S.Ct. 165. In the case before it, the Court determined that the FLSA “does not exclude as working time periods contracted for and spent on duty” in the factual circumstances presented simply because “the nature of the duty left time hanging heavy on the employees’ hands and because the employer and employee cooperated in trying to make the confinement and idleness incident to it more tolerable.” Id. at 134, 65 S.Ct. 165. In a companion case decided the same day as Armour, the Court considered a situation where employees of Swift & Co. worked a normal 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. shift (with a half-hour lunch period), but then “stay[ed] in the fire hall on the Company premises, or within hailing distance, three and a half to four nights a week.” Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 135, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944). During the evening hours, employees were required to remain on the premises, but were expected to do nothing more than respond to alarms, which were infrequent. Id. Employees were provided with sleeping quarters, billiards and dominoes tables, and a radio. Id. at 136, 65 S.Ct. 161. They were permitted to sleep or to otherwise entertain themselves as they saw fit, so long as they were readily available to respond to an alarm. Id. The district court and appellate court both determined that the “on-call” time was not compensable working time, “apparently restricted by the notion that waiting time may not be work.” Id. at 140, 65 S.Ct. 161. The Supreme Court found the proposition that waiting time cannot be working time erroneous: [W]e hold that no principle of law found either in the statute or in Court decisions precludes waiting time from also being working time. We have not attempted to, and we cannot, lay down a legal formula to resolve cases so varied in their facts as are the many situations in which employment involves waiting time. Whether in a concrete case such time falls within or without the Act is a question of fact to be resolved by appropriate findings of the trial court. This involves scrutiny and construction of the agreements between the particular parties, appraisal of their practical construction of the working agreement by conduct, consideration of the nature of the service, and its relation to the waiting time, and all of the surrounding circumstances. Facts may show that the employee was engaged to wait, or they way show that he waited to be engaged. His compensation may cover both waiting and task, or only performance of the task itself. Living quarters may in some situations be furnished as a facility of the task and in another as a part of its compensation. The law does not impose an arrangement upon the parties. It imposes upon the courts the task of finding what the arrangement was. Id. at 136-37, 65 S.Ct. 161. The Court recognized that “[i]n some occupations ... periods of inactivity are not properly counted as working time even though the employee is subject to call.” Id. at 138, 65 S.Ct. 161 (citing, as possible examples, “an operator of a small telephone exchange where the switchboard is in her home and she ordinarily gets several hours of uninterrupted sleep each night; or a pumper of a stripper well or watchman of a lumber camp during the off season, who may be on duty twenty-four hours a day but ordinarily ‘has a normal night’s sleep, has ample time in which to eat his meals, and has a certain amount of time for relaxation and entirely private pursuits’”). The Court held, however, that the ultimate determination of whether waiting time constitutes working time will generally “depend[ ] upon the degree to which the employee is free to engage in personal activities during periods of idleness when he is subject to call and the number of consecutive hours that the employee is subject to call without being required to perform active work. Hours worked are not limited to the time spent in active labor but include time given by the employee to[ ] the employer.” Id. at 138, 65 S.Ct. 161. Accordingly, the matter was reversed and remanded for further consideration. Id. at 140, 65 S.Ct. 161. Eight years after Armour and Skid-more, the Eighth Circuit had occasion to consider whether guards and firemen employed at the Glenn L. Martin plant during World War II were entitled to compensation for their thirty minute “lunch periods.” Glenn L. Martin Neb. Co. v. Culkin, 197 F.2d 981, 982 (8th Cir.1952). In that case, the guards and fireman were expected to take a thirty minute, unpaid lunch break. Id. The district court recounted that the guards were permitted to go to either an on-site cafeteria or a smoking area, but were required to remain in full uniform, including visored caps and sidearms, and to respond to any calls for assistance. Id. at 990 (Riddick, J., dissenting, citing the district court’s order). The firemen were also required to remain in full uniform and to respond to any calls, and were additionally required to carry plug-in telephones with them. Id. Though the district court noted that interruptions to either a guard or a firefighter’s lunch were few, “the mere presence of a guard fully uniformed, anywhere in the plant area, was a deterrent to lawlessness and necessarily beneficial to the defendant.” Id. Likewise, “the firemen were required to be constantly vigilant and consequently, even during the lunch period, their time was not their own, but belonged to the company.” Id. A divided panel affirmed the district court’s conclusion that the guards and firemen should be compensated for their lunch breaks. Id. at 988. Despite evidence showing that the guards and firemen were rarely interrupted during their thirty minute lunch periods, the Court found that the significant question “was whether they were performing their regular duties during that period and were then substantially performing the duties assigned to them by their employer and were not free to follow pursuits of a purely private nature.” Id. at 984 (citing Armour, 323 U.S. at 126, 65 S.Ct. 165 and Skidmore, 323 U.S. at 134, 65 S.Ct. 161). Although the guards were constantly obliged to prevent disturbances by their presence and vigilance, and the firemen were likewise obligated to be constantly vigilant to prevent fires, yet both the guards and the firemen served to a considerable extent in a stand-by capacity. In the latter respect both were engaged in their regular duties during the 30-minute period as effectively as if they were putting down disturbances or putting out fires. And if, as the trial court found, these plaintiffs were engaged in the principal activity of their regular work during the 30-minute period, they were entitled to recover compensation therefor unless defendant is correct in one or more of its remaining assignments of error. Id. at 985. The FLSA’s lack of statutory specificity regarding the definition of “work” led the Department of Labor (“DOL”), in 1961, to articulate general criteria for deciding when an employee is considered to be “working” for purposes of the FLSA. It is one of these regulations, § 785.19, that Plaintiffs cite in support of their contention that an employee can only be deemed “not working” and, thus, not entitled to compensation, when he is “completely relieved from duty.” See Pis.’ Br. at 14-17. Plaintiffs argue that when the “completely relieved” standard of § 785.19 is applied to their case, the systematic and chronic nature of the underpayment of Mercy PSOs, in violation of FLSA, becomes clear. Defendant counters that the DOL regulatory interpretation is not controlling because it has properly been overridden by the judicial opinions of Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit. See Def.’s Br. at 15. Ordinarily, regulations promulgated by an administrative agency charged with implementation of legislation are presumptively valid and entitled to judicial deference. See Nat. R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Boston & Me. Corp., 503 U.S. 407, 112 S.Ct. 1394, 118 L.Ed.2d 52 (1992) (“Judicial deference to reasonable interpretations by an agency of a statute that it administers is a dominant, well settled principle of federal law.”) (citing Chevron U.S.A Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984)). With respect to § 785.19 and the other FLSA regulations, however, the DOL has specifically stated that the “ultimate decisions on interpretations of the [FLSA] are made by the courts.” 29 C.F.R. § 785.2 (citing Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 138, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944)) (finding that the DOL Administrator’s interpretations “constitute a body of experience and informed judgment to which courts and litigants may properly resort for guidance”). Indeed, § 785.2 provides that the pertinent regulations are merely designed to articulate “the positions [the DOL] will take in enforcement of the [FLSA],” and to “inform the public of such positions.” Thus, courts considering the import of § 785.19 have noted that it is merely an “Interpretive Bulletin” that, while informative, is not binding. See Henson v. Pulaski County Sheriff Dep’t, 6 F.3d 531, 534 (8th Cir.1993) (noting that regulations such as § 785.19 “do not bind us”); Blain v. Gen. Elec. Co., 371 F.Supp. 857, 860 (W.D.Ky.1971) (finding that the “30 minute meal period referred to in Section 785.19 is only a broad guide to the Administrator’s enforcement policy. It is not an inflexible standard which binds either the Wage-Hour Administrator or the courts”); see also Myracle v. Gen. Elec. Co., No. 889-2264, 1992 WL 699863, at *7 (W.D.Tenn. Dec. 1, 1992) (concluding that, while “helpful to the court in explaining the enforcement policy of the [DOL] with regard to meal periods,” § 785.19 is not “binding or determinative” and does not “represent legal standards which the court is bound to follow”), affirmed by Myracle v. Gen. Elec. Co., No. 92-6716, 1994 WL 456769, at *6 (6th Cir.1994) (finding the district court correctly afforded “some, but not complete deference” to the DOL “Interpretive Bulletin”). Accordingly, in 1993, after considering the “ ‘the thoroughness evident in [§ 785.19’s] consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to persuade, if lacking power to control,” the Eighth Circuit rejected the “completely relieved” standard of § 785.19, adopting in its stead the “predominant benefit” standard. Henson, 6 F.3d at 534. In Henson, the Eighth Circuit considered two separate FLSA appeals that had been combined for consideration. Id. at 533. In the first of the two cases, the plaintiff patrol officers sued the defendant police department for failing to compensate them for meal periods. Id. at 536. Each patrol officer was given a half-hour meal period per shift. Id. Officers were required to obtain permission before beginning their break, but were permitted to return to the station to change into civilian clothes and to travel to their destination before the half-hour period was deemed to commence. Id. While on break, the officers were permitted to “go wherever they please,” and although they could “be approached by members of [the] public at times,” they had no work-related duties other than “monitoring] their radios and [ ] responding] in the case of an emergency____Most importantly, the officers may and do tend to personal errands.” Id. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the police department, and the Court of Appeals affirmed, finding that the minimal restrictions on the officers’ lunch break freedoms “could not support a finding that the patrol officers spend their meal breaks predominantly for the benefit of them employer.” Id. (“The officers have a full thirty minutes to use for their own purposes and in which to travel to any desired location, subject only to the possibility of being recalled in an emergency.”). In the second of the two cases under consideration in Henson, the plaintiffs were sheriffs deputies assigned as correctional officers at a jail. Id. The deputies received a thirty-minute unpaid lunch period, wherein they were required to remain on the jail premises, though they were permitted to go to their cars or run across the street to a fast food restaurant to pick up food if they had permission. Id. During the lunch break, deputies were relieved of regular duties and were free to do “anything they wish,” though they were required to respond to any emergency calls. Id. The magistrate judge assigned to the case granted summary judgment in favor of the deputies, finding that they were “required to perform ‘active or inactive’ duties while eating and that these duties restrict their personal freedom to such an extent that they are not completely relieved from duty.” Id. at 536-37. The Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment in favor of the deputies, concluding that “[s]ummary judgment for the deputies would be proper only if because of the ‘active or inactive’ duties the deputies are required to perform while eating they spend their meal breaks predominantly for the benefit of the Department.” Id. at 537 (emphasis added). Because the record was insufficiently developed to make that determination, the Court remanded the matter to the trial court for further consideration. Id. (“Although the deputies must spend their meal breaks on the jail premises and an emergency interrupts approximately twenty percent of their breaks, we cannot say as a matter of law that because of these requirements the deputies spend their meal breaks predominantly for the benefit of the Department.”). In the Henson cases, the Court explicitly adopted the “predominant benefit” test as “the appropriate test for determining the compensability of meal periods under the FLSA,” despite the fact that both plaintiff groups urged the Court to employ the “completely relieved” standard of § 785.19. Id. at 533-34. After serious consideration, the Court found that the DOL regulation “lacks persuasive authority” because it is “inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s longstanding interpretation of the [FLSA] and would mandate the application of a rigid rule in the face of the Supreme Court’s direction that courts take a practical approach based on the unique facts of each case.” Id. at 535. In particular, the Court was troubled by the inflexible nature of the DOL standard, noting that, in application, the “completely relieved” standard “means that employees who remain subject to call during their meal breaks must always be compensated for that time, because they continue to perforin an ‘inactive’ duty and are not completely relieved of duty.” Id. at 534. The Circuit found it “unrealistic to hold that an employer must compensate employees for all meal periods in which the employee is relieved of all duties except simply remaining on-call to respond to emergencies, which the completely-relieved-from-duty standard would seem to require.” Id. In adopting the “predominant benefit test” as the governing standard for determining mealtime compensability, the Eighth Circuit stated that the standard “comports with the Supreme Court’s admonition to use a practical, realistic approach under the unique circumstances of each case when deciding whether certain activities constitute compensable work.” Id. at 534 (citing Skidmore, 323 U.S. at 140, 65 S.Ct. 161 (“Each case must stand on its own facts.”) and Armour, 323 U.S. at 133, 65 S.Ct. 165 (“Whether time is spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit or for the employee’s is a question dependent upon all the circumstances of the case.”)). The Court further noted that the majority of circuit courts of appeals have rejected the “complete relief’ standard and embraced the “predominant benefit” standard. See id. at 537 (citing Lamon v. City of Shawmee, Kan., 972 F.2d 1145, 1155 (10th Cir.1992) (interpreting DOL “completely relieved” standard as meaning that the test for compensability is whether the meal period is spent “predominantly for the benefit of the employer”)); see also Birdwell, 970 F.2d at 808 (“The question of whether the employees are working during [on-call] time for purposes of the FLSA depends on the degree to which the employee may use the time for personal activities,” i.e., “whether ‘the time is spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit or for the employee’s”); Bright v. Houston N.W. Med. Ctr. Survivor, Inc., 934 F.2d 671, 677 (5th Cir.1991) (“[T]he ‘critical issue’ in cases of this kind [is] ‘whether the employee can use the [on-call] time effectively for his or her own purposes.’ ”); Hill v. United States, 751 F.2d 810, 814 (6th Cir.1984) (concluding as a matter of law that postal workers were not spending meal times predominantly for the benefit of their employer where the employee “was not required to perform any activities that could be characterized as substantial duties”). Despite some seeming inconsistency between Glenn and Henson, the Henson Court emphasized that it had, in Glenn and other cases, applied the “predominant benefit” standard either “expressly or implicitly in various situations to determine whether certain activities constitute work under the [FLSA].” 6 F.3d at 534 (citing May v. Ark. Forestry Comm’n, 993 F.2d 632, 639 (8th Cir.1993) (approving jury instruction that incorporated the predominant benefit standard) and Glenn, 197 F.2d at 985); see also Reimer v. Champion Healthcare Corp., 258 F.3d 720, 725 (8th Cir.2001) (finding that on-call employees who were permitted to leave the employer’s premises and pursue virtually unrestricted activities, save for drinking alcohol or taking mind-altering drugs, were not spending their time “predominantly for the benefit of their employer” and thus, were not entitled to compensation under the FLSA). Thus, in light of the compelling arguments made by the Eighth Circuit, and the binding authority of its opinion in Henson, this Court finds that the “predominant benefit” standard is the appropriate test to employ in analyzing the compensability of Plaintiffs’ meal breaks. 2. Application of the predominant benefit standard to Mercy’s meal break policy. a. Plaintiffs’ assertions of “presence” as compensable work time. Plaintiffs assert that “[t]he main job duties of the public safety officers in-eluded responding to tasks, waiting to be engaged to respond to tasks, acting as a visual deterrent, and simply being a presence in the facilities to which they were assigned.” Pl.’s Br. at 4. The Court agrees that the record supports a finding that these are some of the job duties of PSOs. Other duties included monitoring activities going on inside and outside the hospital, processing and transporting valuables belonging to patients, ensuring that agitated patients do not hurt themselves or others, releasing bodies from the morgue, responding to helicopters, securing parking lots, locking and unlocking doors, and conducting security checks and walkthroughs of the hospital. Pis.’ App. at 66-67 (Lisa Mitchell Dep.); 182-199 (duty descriptions for various shifts and locations). According to Plaintiffs, since “the reason the [PSOs] are there in the first place is to deter bad behavior and be able and willing to respond in case there is an emergency,” Plaintiffs are “working” at all times, even at times when they are seemingly engaged in purely personal pursuits such as eating, reading, or surfing the internet. Id. at 18. Stated another way, Plaintiffs contend that “Mercy seeks to obtain a free half hour from each employee by automatically deducting time from their paycheck for them performing their jobs in the exact same manner as they did ... at other time periods throughout the 8.5 hour shift.” Pis.’ Facts ¶ 104. Plaintiffs’ arguments are premised on the notion that Defendant must pay PSOs for all meal break periods where officers were not relieved of all duties, because Defendant benefitted from the deterrence value of the presence of the PSOs on site during their break periods, just as Defendant benefitted from their presence during paid portions of each PSO’s shift. See Pis.’ Br. at 20 (charging that Mercy “got away with not having to pay another officer [for relief], but still took in the benefit of having the hospital secured”). In essence, Plaintiffs’ argument in this regard is that Defendant “engaged them to wait” for something to happen, and that they were “engaged to wait” both during their paid hours and during their unpaid meal breaks. Plaintiffs’ argument highlights a conceptual issue that lies at the heart of this dispute. Most jobs do not allow both the employer’s and the employee’s interests to be served simultaneously. If an employee is engaged in work for his employer, he generally cannot pursue purely private interests at the same time. There is a mutual exclusivity such that, for most jobs, the benefit of an employee’s time can be allocated to only one party at a time. Thus, typically there is a clear distinction between time spent eating (a personal benefit) and time spent working (a company benefit). However, there are some exceptions to this rule for firefighters, security guards, and a handful of other professions where an employee’s inactive presence by itself begets a meaningful value upon the employer. As evidenced by the Court’s review of case law infra, defining “work” versus “break time” can be challenging simply because it mixes together different categories or dimensions of work. That is, the traditional “performance” dimension of “work” is intermingled with a conception of work unfamiliar to most people, i.e., the “engaged to wait” concept, which can also be referred to as a “presence” conception of work. In a case such as this one, a distinction must be made between active (performance) duties and passive (presence) duties. Unquestionably, both types of duties provide value to the employer. Indeed, Mercy is benefitted both by having PSOs perform daily scheduled tasks and respond to emergency calls (active duties) and by merely having PSOs on-site at one of its facilities, ready to respond should a need arise (a passive duty). When PSOs perform passive duties, there is an overlap between their ability to pursue their own purely private interests and their ability to perform a service for Mercy. PSOs performing passive duties can have their own personal needs met and also simultaneously meet some of Mercy’s needs, simply by eating their lunch at the Mercy facility rather than going off site. In contrast ■with most jobs, there is no “either/or” tradeoff in which one party’s gain is the other’s loss. If a PSO is not fully relieved by another officer, but rather remains on-site where he is viewable by others or can quickly respond if needed, then Mercy gets the same benefit from that PSO’s “presence” as it does during the same PSO’s time on the clock. In other words, Mercy’s PSOs are able to continue providing passive benefits even while fully enjoying lunch or other purely private pursuits during their 30-minute respite. Thus, the Court is here faced with a situation where both Mercy and the PSOs will necessarily have some of their needs met during the mandated meal periods. Such a situation inherently means that one of the parties will receive an “extra benefit” beyond that which it could normally expect. That is, if Mercy does not pay PSOs for their meal periods, but continues to receive value in the form of the PSOs’ “presence,” then it naturally follows that Mercy is receiving a benefit from the PSOs for “free.” If, on the other hand, Mercy is required to pay PSOs for a lunch period wherein they are able to pass their time predominantly in pursuit of their own interests, then the PSOs are receiving compensation for time that most workers would not be paid for, merely because Mercy receives a correspondent benefit. Obviously, under Mercy’s current meal break system, Mercy is the recipient of the “extra benefit” because it does not pay PSOs at the Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes locations for meal break periods, despite the fact that it receives some benefit from their presence. As discussed supra, however, the FLSA was designed, not to limit benefits to employers, but to eliminate real harms to employees. Thus, Mercy’s receipt of this “extra benefit” is only unlawful under the FLSA if Plaintiffs can offer evidence, sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact, that their meal break periods are spent “predominantly for the benefit of [Mercy].” Henson, 6 F.3d at 537. b. Factors to be considered in applying the “predominant benefit” test. In support of their claim that a PSO is “working” at all times at the Mercy Capitol, Mercy Franklin, and Mercy West Lakes locations, Plaintiffs generally assert that the principal activity of their regular work was waiting for something to happen that required a response, i.e., Plaintiffs were “engaged to wait” and they undertook to perform this passive duty both during their paid shift time and during their unpaid meal breaks. Pis.’ Br. at 32 (“Plaintiffs have alleged that because of the type of work they are required to do, which is to sit and wait to respond to an eme