Employees must be paid for time donning safety gear
Class-action suit filed by meat-packing workers
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that companies must pay plant workers for the time it takes to change into protective clothing and safety gear and walk to their workstations, a decision hailed as a safety victory for meat-packing, poultry, and food processing workers who typically must put on sanitary outer garments, boots, hardhats, aprons, and gloves.
The issue was one of two that the justices settled in a pair of unanimous decisions regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act. In a defeat for business, the court said that employers must pay wages for the donning of "integral" gear and the time it takes workers to then walk to the production area. The time spent putting on protective gear was not the focus of the ruling, because the Supreme Court held nearly 50 years ago that workers at a battery plant must be compensated for time spent putting on special protective clothes. Instead, the dispute focused on the time employees spend walking from place to place. Justices had been told that workers sometimes have long waits after putting on their gear.
The ruling clears the way for 815 petitioning workers at a Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. packing plant to receive $7.3 million in a class-action suit filed more than seven years ago.
The case, Alvarez v. IBP, was filed by workers who claimed the company had violated federal and state law by not paying them for the time it took to dress in required protective clothing and walk to the production line. The workers argued it took them up to 30 minutes a day to "doff and don" the required metal mesh vests, aprons, leggings, and gloves, and said their workday should begin when they started dressing. The employer argued that a 1947 federal law required they start paying the workers only when they actually arrived at their workstations.
As a result of the ruling, an employer who requires employees to don special protective equipment prior to commencing work must compensate employees for time spent donning the protective equipment at the beginning of the shift, time spent removing the protective equipment at the end of the shift, and time spent walking between the changing area and the work site at the beginning and end of each shift.
The court rejected the employees' argument that they should be compensated for the time they spend waiting to don the first piece of safety gear at the beginning of the workday.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that companies must pay plant workers for the time it takes to change into protective clothing and safety gear and walk to their workstations ...You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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