Hormel workers to get paid for putting on required clothing, equipment

Workers at a Wisconsin Hormel Foods Corp. plant are entitled to compensation for the nearly six minutes they spend donning and doffing required work clothing and equipment, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled.

Milwaukee-based Local 1473 of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union filed a class action lawsuit against Austin, Minnesota-based Hormel Foods alleging the company violated Wisconsin wage-and-hour laws by not paying its Beloit, Wisconsin, cannery employees for the time they spent putting on and taking off required work clothes and equipment, according to Tuesday’s 4-2 ruling by the Wisconsin high court.

In 2013, a Janesville, Wisconsin, circuit court ruled that some 330 workers were entitled to $195,100 in pay.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in upholding the lower court, said “that donning and doffing the clothing and equipment at the beginning and end of the day in the instant case is ‘integral and indispensable’ to the employees’ principal activities of producing food products.”

“Accordingly, we affirm the circuit court’s judgment and order that the employees should be compensated for the 5.7 minutes per day” under Wisconsin law, the court ruled.

The dissenting opinion states it is not correct that donning and doffing is integral and indispensable to a principal activity in part because, contrary to what is said in the lead opinion, applicable federal food, health and safety regulations do not require it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard, but has not yet issued an opinion in Tyson Foods Inc. v. Peg Bouaphakeo et al., a class action on the issue of whether employees should be paid for all the time they spend donning and doffing protective gear.