Adient Wage Class Suit Advances Minus Donning, Doffing Claim

A manufacturing employee may pursue proposed class claims that Adient US LLC violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and Ohio law by failing to compensate her and other workers for time spent walking to and from workstations and gathering tools and equipment, but not changing in and out of their protective clothing and gear, a federal judge ruled.

Adient had a longstanding policy and practice of not compensating donning and doffing time, and was permitted to do so under the FLSA because this custom existed when it entered into a labor contract with its employees’ union. Judge James R. Knepp ...