546US1
Unit: $$U5
[08-22-08 13:38:19] PAGES PGT: OPIN
Cite as: 546 U. S. 21 (2005)
31
Opinion of the Court
IBP has also paid for four minutes of clothes-changing time.4 In 1999, respondents, IBP employees, filed this class action to recover compensation for preproduction and postproduc tion work, including the time spent donning and doffing pro tective gear and walking between the locker rooms and the production floor before and after their assigned shifts. After a lengthy bench trial, the District Court for the Eastern District of Washington held that donning and doffing of protective gear that was unique to the jobs at issue were compensable under the FLSA because they were integral and indispensable to the work of the employees who wore such equipment. Moreover, consistent with the con tinuous workday rule, the District Court concluded that, for those employees required to don and doff unique protective gear, the walking time between the locker room and the production floor was also compensable because it occurs during the workday.5 The court did not, however, allow any recovery for ordinary clothes changing and washing, or for the “donning and doffing of hard hat[s], ear plugs, safety glasses, boots [or] hairnet[s].” App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 03–1238, p. 65a. The District Court proceeded to apply these legal conclu sions in making detailed factual findings with regard to the different groups of employees. For example, the District 4
IBP does not contend that this clothes-changing time fully compen sated respondents for the preproduction and postproduction time at issue in this case. 5 The District Court explained: “Walking time is compensable if it occurs after the start of the workday. 29 U. S. C. § 254(a). Walking time is excluded under the Portal to Portal Act only if it occurs ‘either prior to the time on any particular work day at which such employee commences or subsequent to the time on any par ticular work day at which he ceases such principal activity or activities.’ Id. The work day begins with the commencement of an employee’s prin cipal activity or activities and ends with the completion of the employee’s activity . . . .” App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 03–1238, pp. 53a–54a.
