Case Study 8-3. “Donning Safety Equipment?” or “Changing
Clothes?”
The Steelworkers’ union had a new collective bargaining agreement with the steel manufacturer
that said, “Employees shall be paid for donning and removing protective gear prior to beginning
work and at the end of the workday, provided it constitutes more than a de minimus activity.” Soon
after the agreement was ratified, the union filed a grievance, charging that management was not
abiding by the “donning” contract clause.
Position of the Union:
Under the new contract, management is supposed to pay workers for putting on and taking off
personal protective equipment (PPE). Working in a mill with molten steel is dangerous and requires
that workers wear several pieces of PPE. These include the following special flame-retardant
articles: a jacket, a pair of pants, a “snood” (a hood with neck protection), “wristlets,” work gloves,
and leggings. Other types of PPE include the following: a hardhat, special steel-toe boots, safety
glasses, earplugs, and a respirator (worn occasionally, as needed). Workers would not normally
wear these types of PPE except for the hazards of the job. Indeed, these forms of PPE are
expected by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Thus, donning PPE is an integral
part of the day’s work activities. The collective bargaining agreement requires that bargaining unit
employees be paid for putting PPE on at the start of the workday and taking it off at the end of the
workday. This equates to approximately 15 minutes total per worker per day. Further, after donning
their PPE, the workers must walk (or ride a shuttle bus) approximately 10–15 minutes from the
locker room to their specific work stations in the sprawling 4000-acre work site. This time, too, is an
integral part of the workday and should be compensated.
Position of the Company:
Book Title: Custom eTextbook: The Labor Relations Process
Chapter 8. Administrative Issues
Case Study 8-3. “Donning Safety Equipment?” or “Changing Clothes?”
Most of the articles mentioned in the Union’s list are not PPE at all. They are “clothing.” The
company is not obligated to pay for people to change clothes, even if they normally do it in a locker
room on the company’s premises. Hard hats are “hats”; steel-toe boots are “boots.” Common
sense indicates that these are “clothes” and not special PPE. The only items that constitute PPE
are safety glasses, earplugs, and the respirator (which is not always worn). Putting on safety
glasses and earplugs takes less than 20 seconds. Thus, they fall under the “de minimus activity”
exception mentioned in the contract. Also, there is no history of making such payments in the 59
years of collective bargaining at this plant. Thus, we are not obligated to pay for changing time. Nor
are we obligated to pay for the time spent walking to the appropriate work stations. If we were
required to do that, then the slowest, laziest workers would earn more pay by walking at a more
leisurely pace, thereby undermining employee discipline and potentially the operation of the mill
itself.
Q-1. Analyze how each side interprets the meaning of this contract clause. Whose position is more persuasive? Why?
Q-2. In 1947, Congress passed the Portal-to-Portal Act (a “portal” is a doorway; 61 Stat. 84, as amended, 29 U. S. C. §251 et seq. (2006 ed. and Supp. V). §251(a). This law said that an employer is not liable to pay workers for time they spend traveling to work (e.g., an hour-long commute). It also excludes from compensable time, “activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to [the] principal activity or activities [that an employee is employed to perform], which occur either prior to the time on any particular workday at which such employee commences, or subsequent to the time on any particular workday at which he ceases, such principal activity or activities.” 61 Stat. 87, 29 U. S. C. §254(a)(2). Further, in 1949, Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (which regulates overtime) to read, “[In determining] the hours for which an employee is employed, there shall be excluded any time spent in changing clothes or washing at the beginning or end of each workday.” 63 Stat. 911, 29 U. S. C. §203(o). This law excluded “changing clothes” from compensable time, but it also specifically allowed collective bargaining agreements to specify that such time be paid.
Analyze the case in light of these two relevant laws.
