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US Supreme Court argument on whether walking and waiting time are compensable
September 30, 2005 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
Update: Supreme Court decided this case November 8, 2005.
IBP, Inc v. Alvarez; Tum v. Barber Foods
Oral Argument: October 3, 2005
Decisions below: Alvarez v. IBP, Inc. (9th Cir 08/05/2003); Tum v. Barber Foods (1st Cir 03/10/2004)
Briefs
In these consolidated cases, the Circuit Courts ruled that the employers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by not paying for time employees spent donning and doffing specialized protective clothing before beginning work, at the end of work, and during unpaid lunch break.
The Supreme Court will be reviewing a narrower issue: whether waiting and walking time is compensable. Waiting time is time waiting in line to punch a time clock or to acquire protective clothing. Walking time is the time spent walking from the place where the gear is donned to the place where the work is done, and back.
- The 9th Circuit held that employees should be paid for all the time from the moment they began donning the protective gear at the beginning of the day until they doffed it at the end of the day, including the time spent walking to and from the locker room and the work station, and ruled that this time was not excluded as preliminary or postliminary activities under the Portal-to-Portal Act.
- The 1st Circuit held that the Portal-to-Portal Act specifically excluded this "walking time" from being compensable.
My view: Too close to call.
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