PPE or ordinary clothing? Court rules on “donning and doffing” case
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that for legal purposes, protective items are not different from ordinary clothing, so workers at a U.S. Steel Corp. plant do not have to be compensated for the time they spend “donning and doffing” them.
In Sandifer v. United States Steel Corporation, approximately 800 employees at the company’s Gary, Indiana facility sought back pay for time spent donning and doffing pieces of protective gear that the company requires workers to wear because of hazards at its steel plants. In the aggregate, the amount of time—and thus money—involved is likely to be quite large.