In one of the most significant rulings on the duty of employers to pay their workers for the actual work they do, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court has made it simpler to calculate when the workday starts and when it stops. Relying on a concept of "a continuous workday," the court refused to allow employers to break up the day without paying for those interruptions.

In brief, the Court declared that, when a worker performs the first task of his job, even if it´s not right at his workstation, that is when the workday begins. It ends when the final task of the day is done. Everything in between (except for lunch or unpaid breaks) is time for which a worker must be paid, under the federal wage and hour law, the Federal Labor Standards Act. Within that workday, the time it takes to walk to a workstation and to wait to do a necessary side task must also be compensated.

The Court´s decision in the combined cases of IBP Inc. v. Alvarez and Tum v. Barber Foods, announced on Nov. 8, 2005, was one of the first decisions of the Court´s new term and will have a significant impact on business and labor. It clears up some uncertainty that has lingered for years. As a practical matter, the decision will have its greatest impact in industries where workers are required to put on special clothing or strap on gear that is essential to their jobs - such as factories where employees need protection while working with toxic materials or with hazardous tools. That will be the case in many manufacturing and processing industries.

Who's On, Who's Off the Clock.
The two cases that produced the ruling involve workers in meat-processing plants in Pasco, Wash., and Portland, Maine. In both plants, workers are required to put on protective gear before they go to the assembly line or cutting rooms, and take it off before they leave at the end of the day. The pay principles that emerged from this case mean that:

• The time waiting to put on required clothing or gear at the start of the shift does not start the workday and thus is not compensable (unless the employer requires workers to show up at a specified time, and they must then wait to don their work gear).
• The time spent "donning" the required gear is compensable. The new decision makes clear that that activity is what starts the workday and the duty to pay.
• The decision does not apply when workers use special clothing or gear that is not specifically required for their jobs.
• The time spent walking from the locker room to the workstation is compensable.
• Any time spent walking between workstations - say, along an assembly line - is compensable.
• The time walking back to the locker room is compensable and so is any time waiting to "doff" the gear.
• And, in the final task of the day, the actual "doffing" is compensable. When that is finished, the day is over, for pay purposes. Walking back to punch out at the time clock, however, is not part of the workday.

The court´s decision rests on interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, prior Supreme Court rulings, the Portal-to-Portal Act passed in 1947 and Labor Department regulations. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the court´s opinion, joined by the new chief justice, John G. Roberts and all other members of the court.
 
Related Item:
Other workplace cases before the Supreme Court

About the Author

Lyle Denniston is a veteran Supreme Court reporter, having covered the highest court for 47 years. He thus has covered one out of every four Justices ever to sit on the Court. Denniston writes for Workforce Insights on Veritude.com.  Most recently with The Boston Globe, Denniston is now reporting on the Court for SCOTUSblog, a Web site devoted to news and information about the Court, and for the NPR Boston affiliate, WBUR.           

About Veritude
Veritude provides strategic human resources - the talent, technology and tactics that growing firms need in order to anticipate and adapt to changes in the workplace. Veritude is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. Headquartered in Boston, the company serves clients throughout the United States and Canada and is part of Fidelity´s ongoing investment and leadership in outsourced HR services. To review other articles, research and expert analysis relevant to HR professionals seeking to stay informed, please visit www.veritude.com.For more information, contact: inquiry@veritude.com; or call 1-800-597-5537.

^©2005 Veritude, LLC.  Reprinted with permission.