U.S. Steel wins Supreme Court labor fight

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20. The court expressly does NOT overturn Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U. S. 247 (1956)

Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U. S. 247 (1956)

In Steiner v. Mitchell, 350 U. S. 247 (1956), the Court echoed the Labor Department’s 1947 regulations by holding that “changing clothes and showering” can, under some circumstances, be considered “an integral and indispensable part of the principal activities for which covered workmen are employed,” reasoning that §203(o) “clearly implied” as much. Id., at 254–256. And in IBP, we applied Steiner to treat as compensable the donning and doffing of protective gear somewhat similar to that at issue here, 546 U. S., at 30. We said that “any activity that is ‘integral and indispensable’ to a ‘principal activity’ is itself a ‘principal activity’” under §254(a), id., at 37.

As relevant to the question before us, U. S. Steel does not dispute the Seventh Circuit’s conclusion that “had the clothes-changing time in this case not been rendered non-compensable pursuant to §203(o), it would have been a principal activity.” 678 F. 3d, at 596. Petitioners, however, quarrel with the premise, arguing that the donning and doffing of protective gear does not qualify as “changing clothes