The case involves a city employer requirement that police officers wear their uniforms and gear, and the police officers’ contention that the time spent in donning and doffing their uniforms and equipment was compensable. Each officer was provided a locker at the station, and facilities were available for the officers to don and doff their uniforms and related gear, but there was no requirement imposed by the employer to do this at work--the officers had the option to don and doff at home or at work.
The Ninth Circuit defers to a Dept. of Labor opinion letter that “reiterated that ‘clothes changing time must be counted as hours worked if it is required by the rules of the employer.’” The Court also cites the DOL Field Operations Handbook which instructs that “[e]mployees who dress to go to work in the morning are not working while dressing even though the uniforms they put on at home are required to be used in the plant during working hours. Similarly, any changing which takes place at home at the end of the day would not be an integral part of the employees’ employment and is not working time.” Bamonte v. City of Mesa
