A federal judge in charge of a Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) action involving workers for the turkey producer, Butterball, has rejected an attempt by the workers to compel the poultry company to adopt measures that would provide accurate records of the time workers took donning and doffing their special work clothing. The case is entitled Martinez-Hernandez v. Butterball, LLC. and is being litigated in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

As I have written about numerous times, these donning and doffing, working-time cases, are very difficult to defend, as well as to prosecute, given the problems associated with amount of time actually spent in donning/duffing, as opposed to the amount claimed,

The plaintiffs had sought time records that showed this data but Butterball asserted that it did not keep specific records of those activities. In response to this, the plaintiffs requested that the court to compel Butterball to permit the workers to install timekeeping equipment at the plant to monitor the activity, but the company refused.

The court agreed that there was no legal obligation for Butterball to do that and that the plaintiffs’ request overreached as it would impose new obligations on Butterball to collect this data on the employees.

The claim was employees should be paid for the time walking from one work station to the next, the time putting protective clothing on and the time cleaning up after their shifts ended. The employees also claimed illegal deductions were made in the form of making them pay for their personal protective equipment.  

When do employees start working? The basic rule of thumb is when they undertake activities that are directly connected to their work, that is, that they would be unable to do their primary job if they had not engaged in the preliminary or postliminary activity, such as putting on protective work clothing, especially if mandated by federal or state regulations or health laws.