Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules for Workers in Hormel Don-Doff Class Action

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that a class of manufacturing-plant
workers at Hormel Food Corp. should be paid for the time they
need to change into and out of their required clothes and equipment.
United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1473 v. Hormel Food.
Corp., No. 2014-AP-1880 (Wis., order entered March 1, 2016). The court
found that under Wisconsin regulations, Hormel must compensate its
employees for 5.7 minutes per day.

The ruling affirms a circuit court decision finding that “the employees’
donning and doffing clothing and equipment at the beginning and end
of the day brought Hormel into compliance with federal food and safety
regulations and was integral and indispensable to sanitation and safety in
the employees’ principal work activities, namely food production.”

Issue 596