Pay workers to put on, take off safety gear? Federal court decides

Are you required to pay workers for the time they spend putting on and taking off their safety gear? It depends on one factor, a federal court ruled.
It said if workers are required to put on safety gear by law, company policy or by the nature of the work performed, then it is a “principal activity” for their jobs — and they must be compensated for that time.
Workers sued

Production workers at Mountaire Farms chicken processing plant in Millsboro, DE, are required to wear ear plugs, bump caps, smocks, hair and beard nets, and boots. Some are also required to wear gloves, aprons and safety glasses.
The gear is required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Plant workers filed a lawsuit against Mountaire to be paid for the time they spent donning and doffing the protective gear.
Originally, a lower court ruled that the employees should be paid for putting on and taking off the gear during workers’ start of a shift, end of a shift and lunch breaks.
Mountaire appealed that ruling to a federal court.
Followed in other courts’ footsteps
The federal appeals court noted that several previous federal court rulings have stated that employers are required to pay workers for time spent performing a “principal activity” of their jobs — and the fact that Mountaire employees were required by U.S. regulations to wear the gear meant they must be compensated for the time spent putting it on/taking it off.
But there was one exclusion. The court said workers didn’t have to be paid for taking off the gear and putting it back on during lunch breaks, a precedent that had also been set by past federal court rulings.
Minimal amount of time
Mountaire also tried arguing that the 10 minutes a day it took workers to put on and take off the safety gear was too minimal to be considered compensable.
The court disagreed. Why? Over the course of a year, 10 minutes a day would add up to a full week’s pay.
Final verdict: Mountaire had to pay workers for the 10 minutes a day of donning and doffing safety gear, and pay them retroactively for that time over the previous two years.
Cite: Perez v. Mountaire Farms, Inc. (PDF)
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