Employees Not Entitled to Overtime Changing in and out of Required Clothing

Although the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that time spent changing clothes at the beginning and end of a shift be included in hours worked there is a provision that says this time is not compensable if it has been excluded “by custom or practice under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement.” In this case, it had never been included in the bargaining agreement, so the Court of Appeals ruled that the time was not included in hours worked.

This decision points out just how complex the FLSA is for had there been no union contract the time would have been compensable.

FLSA Applies to Indian-Owned Smoke Shop on Reservation

As reported at Turtle Talk, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Fair Labor Standards Act applies to Indian-owned businesses operating on Indian reservations and that the Secretary of Labor has the right to inspect the books of such businesses. 

The case, Solis v. Matheson, centers around a smoke shop owned by a member of the Puyallap Tribe and operated on the Puyallap Reservation in Washington. The Secretary of Labor subpoenaed the books of the smoke shop and determined that the owners failed to pay overtime wages to its employees, as required by the FLSA. The district court agreed. The 9th Circuit affirmed the decision on appeal.