Many employees are unaware of recent developments in employee/labor laws based on decisions from the United States Supreme Court and the Federal Appellate Courts. Certain employees in Las Vegas are required to wear protective gear or other type of clothes or equipment in performing their job duties.

Under some circumstances an employer is obligated to pay the employee for the time it takes to put on (donning) and take off (duffing) their clothes and other equipment. If the clothing, garments, or equipment is essential to the performance of the job duties, then an employer is required to pay an employee the time necessary to prepare for work and to don the safety or special equipment or apparel and duff the safety or special equipment and apparel at the end of their shift.

The United States Supreme Court in IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez (commonly referred
to as “Alvarez”), discussed a Federal Statute (Fair Labor Standard Act “FLSA”) found at 29 CFR 790.1 et seq, which defines work, the activities related to work, and hourly wage. In Alvarez, the Supreme Court held that time donning and duffing specialized equipment and time spent going to and from changing areas is compensable.

In addition, in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Asencio (commonly referred to as “Tyson”), the Court found that chicken processors must be paid for the time it takes to put on their specialized safety gear and take off their specialized safety gear. These employees would process chickens at the Tyson Food plant and were required to wear specialized safety gear in order to avoid injury to themselves or contamination to themselves or chickens. Originally Tyson was not paying the employees to don or duff the specialized gear before and after their shift. Subsequent to the decision, Tyson and other manufacturing plants have changed their procedure to now pay employees for that time.

The employees in Alvarez and Tyson won class actions to achieve payment for the time putting on and taking off their safety equipment and going to and from the changing areas. Foods, were brought against each defendant as class actions. In order to bring a class action, the rules require that there be: (1) numerosity (a large number of individuals that have been injured or adversely affected), and (2) typicality (the injury or adverse consequence is typical or substantially similar for all of the affected members of the class). Mainor Eglet does a significant amount of multi-party or class action cases where we can help protect multiple plaintiffs in one lawsuit. In addition, class actions are particularly useful where the harm or injury to one person is not significant or expensive enough to justify a separate lawsuit, but when combined with hundreds of other similarly situated employees or consumers, the combined case represents a significant change in public policy, individual rights, or recovery for the consumers.

If you feel that you have been the victim of discrimination, unfair labor treatment at your work, or you have been treated unfairly in any way, please contact Mainor Eglet for a full evaluation of your potential claim. We can be reached at (702) 450-5400.