The fundamental law that applies to apparel for meat and poultry plant workers is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and it addresses a couple of different issues. First is donning and doffing. The other is in one of FLSA’s provisions that essentially says that the union, the company and employer can agree that time spent in preparation for activities can be excluded from compensable time. In other words, preliminary and postliminary time by agreement can be not compensable.
It was that provision that started this idea of clothing, such as what is clothing and what is clothes changing, etc., explains Richard Alaniz, labor and employment lawyer and founder of Alaniz Law & Associates, in Houston. Over the years, the questions became more focused on what is donning and doffing and what are clothes for the purposes of someone donning and doffing? The issue, when talked about more specifically, has been widely scattered in circuit courts. For example, “Does clothing technically involve protective equipment?” has been litigated.