"We had to be in Avail status at the exact start of our shift or be counted late. For example, if I was scheduled to be in at 10am, I had to be in Avail at 10am. Meaning I had to take care of booting up computer, etc. before then."
This has wage and hour lawsuit written all over it. See "donning and doffing" litigation.
It really depends if they were only paid starting at 10am or if it was just an (extremely shitty) strict start time and if they're salaried or if hourly were being paid for that time. It's not clear from their post if it would be one or the other.
Sure. I'm assuming that people doing those kinds of jobs, working under those kinds of rules, are highly likely to be hourly and not salaried employees.
Yeah and as crappy as it is it being illegal depends entirely on if the employer paid them for the time spent setting up their work station to be 'Available' by 10AM sharp. It only becomes illegal if they're only paying them starting at 10AM when they become available.
Being paid from 10AM to whenever is exactly what the OP implied. They were not paid for setup time as far as I can tell from that text. Are you able to glean more?
This has wage and hour lawsuit written all over it. See "donning and doffing" litigation.