More than 250 workers filed a lawsuit against their employer for not paying them for the time spent putting on and taking off safety gear. Do you think they should’ve been paid?
Under their union contract, the workers employed by a chicken processing plant were only paid for their “line time” and not the time it took to don and doff safety gear. That, the workers said, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The protective equipment included steal-toe shoes, safety glasses, ear plugs, hair nets, bump caps, sleeves, arm shields and more.
The FLSA allows employers and unions to agree through collective bargaining to exclude “time spent in changing clothes … at the beginning or end of each workday” — and this suit leaned on two words in that clause: “changing clothes.”
The workers argued that safety gear isn’t the same as clothes, nor is putting it on the same as changing.
Did they win?
The decision
No. The court rejected the workers’ arguments. It ruled the employer didn’t have to pay them for putting on and taking off the gear.
The court said “clothes” is defined as “covering for the human body” — so the safety gear counted as clothing.
“Changing” is defined as “modifying in some particular way but short of conversion to something else.” And using that definition, the court found putting the safety gear on and taking it off were the same as changing — and therefore not compensable.
Cite: Sepulveda v. Allen Family Foods
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