Page 87 - CPAAC_Fall2015

Fair Labor Standards Act Update

County Personnel Administrators Association of California (CPAAC) Fall Conference| September 17, 2015
Presented by: Jack Hughes

Compensability of Preliminary &
Postliminary Activities

Steelworkers in Indiana filed a lawsuit claiming that U.S. Steel
violated the FLSA by failing to compensate them for time spent
putting on and taking off their work clothes in the plant’s locker
room, including flame-retardant pants and jacket, gloves, boots,
a hard hat, safety glasses, ear plugs and a hood that covers the
top of the head, chin and neck. The employer argued that the
FLSA rendered time spent “donning and doffing” work clothes
non-compensable because the labor agreement did not require
compensation for that time. The steelworkers argued that the
donning and doffing rule did not apply because their work
clothes constitute safety equipment and therefore do not fall
within the meaning of changing clothes.

Is this time compensable?

19

Compensability of Preliminary &
Postliminary Activities

• No. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United
States Supreme Court decided that most of the items in
question met the definition of “clothes,” and that those
which did not took only de minimis time to don and doff.

• The courts’ decisions relied on FLSA, Section 203(o)
which states “changing clothes or washing at the
beginning or end of each workday” is not “work” if
excluded “by the express terms of or by custom or
practice under a bona fide collective-bargaining
agreement.”

Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp. (2014) 134 S. Ct. 870.

20

© 2015 All rights reserved | www.lcwlegal.com 10