Walking is actually an Olympic sport. Sadly, it produces virtually no
income for participants. However, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court,
walking recently became more lucrative. Earlier this month, the High Court
held that the Fair Labor Standards Act required a prominent meatpacking
company to pay employees for time spent walking to workstations after
donning and doffing required protective gear. Alvarez v. IBP and
Tum v. Barber Foods were decided November 8 in a single opinion
by a unanimous Court and are available at IBP Inc. v. Alvarez,
126 S. Ct. 514 (2005). Those two opinions patched significant holes in the
Court’s existing FLSA precedents.
