In Sandifer et al. v. United States Steel Corp., a unanimous Supreme Court clarified the meaning of “changing clothes” found in Section 203(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or “Act”), holding that “changing clothes” includes putting on (donning) and taking off (doffing) protective gear. Section 203(o) of the FLSA allows employers and unions to bargain away compensability for “time spent in changing clothes…at the beginning or end of each workday.” This alert takes a closer look at Sandifer, which is equally significant for all employers because the decision has much to say, however cryptic, regarding the de minimis standard in the context of compensable time, and also includes enigmatic comments, potentially favorable to employers, in connection with the heretofore narrow construction applied to exemptions from overtime under the Act.
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