On Monday, November 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp. on the issue of the meaning of the term “clothes” in section 3(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Under the FLSA, generally, employees must be paid for donning and doffing protective clothing if they are required by law or the employer to change into such clothing at the work site.  However, section 3(o) of the FLSA, passed by Congress in 1949, provides that in a unionized setting time spent “changing clothes” may be excluded from compensable time by a collective bargaining agreement or by a custom or practice of non-compensation for such activities. The outcome of the case will have a significant impact on unionized employers in a wide variety of industries where workers change in and out of protective and/or sanitary clothing at the start and end of their workdays, including food processing, light and heavy industrial manufacturing, chemical processing, energy production, and health care. Continue reading this article here.