Employment — FLSA

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Employment — FLSA

Time spent donning and doffing de minimis amounts of protective gear are not compensable under the Fair labor Standards Act of 1938.

It is evident that the donning and doffing in this case qualifies as “changing clothes” under §203(o).Of the 12 items at issue, only 3—safety glasses, earplugs, and a respirator—do not fit within the elaborated interpretation of “clothes.” Apparently concerned that federal judges would have to separate the minutes spent clothes-changing and washing from the minutes devoted to other activities during the relevant period, some Courts of Appeals have invoked the doctrine de minimis non curat lex (the law does not take account of trifles). But that doctrine does not fit comfortably within this statute, which is all about trifles. A more appropriate way to proceed is for courts to ask whether the period at issue can, on the whole, be fairly characterized as “time spent in changing clothes or washing.” If an employee devotes the vast majority of that time to putting on and off equipment or other non-clothes items, the  entire period would not qualify as “time spent in changing clothes” under §203(o), even if some clothes items were also donned and doffed. But if the vast majority of the time is spent in donning and doffing “clothes” as defined here, the entire period qualifies, and the time spent putting on and off other items need not be subtracted. Here, the Seventh Circuit agreed with the District Court’s conclusion that the time spent donning and doffing safety glasses and earplugs was minimal. And this Court is disinclined to disturb the District Court’s additional factual finding, not addressed by the Seventh Circuit, that the respirators were donned and doffed as needed during the normal workday and thus fell beyond §203(o)’s scope.

678 F. 3d 590, affirmed.

12-417 Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp.

Scalia, J.