Employers cannot be obliged to pay employees for the time it takes to change into and out of work clothes, according to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The Court ruled on an appeal of a seven-year-old dispute in which employees at poultry facilities in Georgia and Alabama sued for the right to be paid for the amount of time it took to change into their smocks, hair nets, gloves, and other protective gear. The Court based its ruling on a 1947 amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act to exclude changing and washing clothes from the definition of work. Lawyers for the workers said they would ask the Court to reconsider its decision.
See "Court: No pay for changing clothes", Tammy Joyner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 4, 2007