Steel workers in Indiana want the nation’s highest court to decide whether they deserve overtime pay for changing their clothes.

A class action lawsuit involving 800 current and former steel workers at U.S. Steel Corp.’s Gary, Indiana, plant claim they are owed overtime for the minutes spent slipping in and out of their work duds, which includes safety gear.

This right, they argue, stems from a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938—even though their own collective bargaining agreement says nothing about the overtime. Part of the case hinges on whether hard hats, safety glasses and ear plugs qualify as clothing or safety equipment.

Lawyers for the workers took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court after two federal appeals courts disagreed on resolving the matter.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Equipment Overtime Case Heads to High Court (by Barbara Leonard, Courthouse News Service)

Supreme Court to Hear Workers' Claims vs U.S. Steel (by Lawrence Hurley, Reuters)

Sandifer v. United States Steel Corporation (United States Court of Appeals-Seventh Circuit, FindLaw)