Judge Denies Poultry Workers Compensation for Time Spent Changing Gear

Posted on Jan 06, 2010

A class of 250 unionized Delaware poultry plant workers are not due wages or compensation for the time they have spent “donning and doffing” their protective gear each day, a federal appellate court in Richmond has affirmed, clarifying the issue for Maryland’s district court and adding another pro-employer decision to the national circuit split.

In a decision that affects thousands of assembly line workers in the mid-Atlantic, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that putting on and taking off the gear, which includes a plastic apron and safety glasses, is “changing clothes” and thus is not necessarily compensable under the Federal Labor Standards Act.

Instead, whether the predominantly non-English-speaking Latino workforce at the Harbeson, Del., plant should be paid for the roughly 15 minutes spent donning and doffing each day is the province of negotiations between the line workers’ union and Allen Family Foods. The company had rejected the union’s proposal for workers compensation during the changing of clothes.

The Daily Record
by Brendan Kearney
Posted: 8:00 PM SUN, JANUARY 3, 2010