Application of Fair Labor Standards Act to Agriculture Meat Inspectors

In response to the former Secretary of Agriculture's request, GAO reviewed the time spent by the food inspectors of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Quality Service (FSQS) in clothes-changing and cleanup activities to determine whether the time is considered as hours of work under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) held that certain USDA red meat inspectors, who are required to wear protective clothing and equipment and to keep them clean, are involved in an integral and indispensable part of their principal activity under FLSA when they are engaged in clothes-changing and cleanup activities at their worksites. GAO would not disturb OPM factual findings unless they were clearly erroneous. GAO also determined that FLSA does not exclude red meat inspectors' clothes-changing and cleanup activities from being compensable hours worked under FLSA. In addition, there was no custom or practice to exclude such activities from being compensable. The meat inspectors union had always challenged the USDA determination to exclude such activities from being compensable from the time that FLSA was made applicable to Federal employees. Moreover, USDA had paid for a certain amount of clothes-changing and cleanup time in the past. Therefore, the time in question could be considered as compensable hours of work.