Pennsylvania Law & Workplace Uniform Maintenance Costs
If an employer requires uniforms, can an employer require an employee to share the costs of purchasing or maintaining uniforms? Yes. Under Pennsylvania law, employers may require employees to purchase work uniforms. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, however, employers may not require employees to purchase uniforms where the cost of the uniform would reduce the employee’s wages below the minimum wage or where the cost would cut into overtime compensation.[1] Minimum wage and overtime pay violations can also occur where an employer deducts or demands reimbursement for the cost of required uniforms or equipment where the deduction drops the employee’s rate of pay below the minimum wage.
While Pennsylvania employers may require employees to pay for uniforms, healthcare industry employees have been successful in achieving class status in Pennsylvania federal courts, alleging that employers should compensate employees for uniform maintenance work.[2] Notably, these cases have been brought by a single law firm, Kolman Ely, which states on its website that it “is at the forefront of this developing theory and is actively pursuing the recovery of uniform maintenance wages for thousands of employees.”[3]
In Potoski v. Wyo. Valley Health Care Sys., the plaintiffs argued that they should be compensated for the eight hours per month required for “washing, spot cleaning, drying, and ironing their work uniforms.”[4] The plaintiffs, required by policy to “to wear certain articles of clothing to work and to ‘maintain a professional, business-like appearance while on duty and to meet high standards for personal cleanliness,’” asserted “that they were not allowed to maintain their uniform components ‘on the clock’ or at their work sites.” The plaintiffs further alleged that the employer “knew that employees regularly performed uniform maintenance work ‘off the clock’ because employees did not have access to washing and ironing facilities and were not given time to wash or maintain their uniform components at work.” One of the plaintiffs, a nurse, described her uniform in her deposition, which included a white scrub top, a pair of black scrub bottoms and a pair of croc-like nursing shoes.[5] When asked why she ironed her scrubs prior to work, the plaintiff stated that she was “required to not go to work with wrinkled clothes.” According to the plaintiff, her employer had instituted the color-coded uniform requirement for nurses.
Outlaw v. Secure Health L.P., a similar healthcare employee case, also including unpaid meal break claims, settled in 2013. The settlement approved a $60,000 damage payment to participating class members, a $5,000 enhancement award for the named plaintiff and first opt-in plaintiff and $75,000 in attorney fees for class counsel.[6] However, at least one court has denied plaintiffs class certification because a proposed nationwide class and the uniform requirement that the clothing be wrinkle-free were each too broad.[7]
The cases achieving class status share a common theme – the uniform maintenance claim is always attached to an additional claim relating to work time during unpaid meal breaks. A New Jersey federal court case, Albanese v. Bergen Cty. noted that the off-the-clock uniform maintenance is compensable under the FLSA “if the jury finds that they were performed for defendants’ benefit and are not de minimus.”[8]
However, at least one court has denied plaintiffs class certification in a uniform maintenance case. In Chandler v. Heartland Employment Servs., LLC, the court denied a proposed nationwide class because the class of employees and the uniform requirement (that the clothing be wrinkle-free) were each too broad.[9]
Conclusion
If special cleaning or decontamination of uniforms is regularly required, courts are more likely to scrutinize your policies and the employee’s time spent outside the workplace to comply with the policies.
[1] United States Dep’t of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #16: Deductions From Wages for Uniforms and Other Facilities Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), July 2009
[2] See Potoski v. Wyo. Valley Health Care Sys., No. 3:11-cv-582, 2013 WL 6731035 (M.D. Pa. Dec. 19, 2013); Goldstein v. Children’s Hosp. of Phila., No. Civ. A.10-1190, 2013 WL 664174 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 25, 2013); Outlaw v. Secure Health L.P., No. 3:11-cv-602, 2012 WL 3150582 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 2, 2012).
[3] Kolman Ely, Class Action Suit. http://www.kolmanelypc.com/expertise/class-action-suit.
[4] Potoski, 2013 WL 6731035.
[5] Potoski, 3:11-cv-582, ECF # 62-1.
[6] See Outlaw, 3:11-cv-602 ECF # 54, Sept. 24, 2013.
[7] Chandler v. Heartland Employment Servs., LLC, No. Civ. A. 12-4395, 2014 WL 1681989 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 28, 2014) (noting the limited classes in Potoski, Outlaw and a Washington D.C. case).
[8] Albanese v. Bergen Cty, 991 F. Supp. 410 (D. N. J. 1997)
[9] Chandler v. Heartland Employment Servs., LLC, No. Civ. A. 12-4395, 2014 WL 1681989 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 28, 2014) (noting the limited classes in Potoski, Outlaw and a Washington D.C. case).