Donning and Doffing: Are You Getting Paid For Getting Ready for Work?

Matt Turner, from Sommers Schwartz, joins the show to define donning, doffing and the policies related to wage earning.

If you work or worked in an industry that requires you to put on and take off Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), you might have experienced wage theft. In this episode, Matt shares case examples of people who have not been paid properly for doing work that is part of the job: which includes putting on your equipment!

Matt talks about a specific case where employees working in a meat processing plant would have to go to work, go to a locker room, and they would have to wear a very defined set of things before they could go into the plant and do their job, “They would have to wear a hairnet, a beard net, a hard hat, safety glasses, steel toed boots, gloves. They’d have to walk and do certain washing after they put this stuff on to make sure their stuff was clean. And then they would proceed to the floor and they would start their jobs and they did not get paid for any of that time that they spent putting on those items.”

Well, they should be paid. Because that’s all work.

Matt provides resources to challenge employers who refuse to pay for donning and doffing.

In this eye-opening episode we expose the hidden injustices workers face every day. If you’re not being paid for putting on work-related equipment, this is the podcast episode for you!