More To Supreme Court’s Sandifer Decision Than The Definition Of 'Clothes'

In Sandifer v. U.S. Steel, the U.S. Supreme Court provides its latest take on donning and doffing clothes and other important timekeeping issues under the FLSA.

On January 27, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp.,[1] unanimously holding that U.S. Steel employees could not avoid the terms of their collective-bargaining agreement, which provides that they are only compensated for time at their work stations and not for time spent donning and doffing their required protective gear. The case turned on the definition of "changing clothes" found in section 203(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).[2] The Court noted that, normally, the time spent donning and doffing such protective gear would be compensable under the FLSA as a so-called "principal activity." Section 203(o), however, permits the exclusion from "hours worked" of the "time spent in changing clothes . . . at the beginning or end of each workday" in accordance with "the express terms of or by custom or practice under a bona fide collective-bargaining agreement applicable to the particular employee."

Background: Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947

The Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 was enacted as an amendment to the FLSA and was designed to clarify the law with respect to the compensability of travel and other activities before and after the scheduled workday. The Portal-to-Portal Act provides that an employer need not count as time worked for minimum wage and overtime purposes time spent "traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the principal activity or activities which such employee is to perform" or in "activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to [the] principal activity or activities [of the job]." Donning and doffing cases seeking overtime pay typically address claims by employees that their employers should have compensated them for time spent putting on and taking off protective clothing that is a prerequisite for doing their jobs. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), "[g]enerally, donning and doffing, which may include clothes changing, can be a 'principal activity' under the Portal to Portal Act." In Sandifer, the Court reaffirmed the principle that "any activity that is 'integral and indispensable' to a 'principal activity' is itself a 'principal activity' under" the Portal-to-Portal Act and that donning and doffing of protective equipment typically will be such a principal activity, unless it is...