133 F.2d 193 | 5th Cir. | 1943
These are consolidated suits to recover minimum wages and overtime under Sections 6 and 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. The case was heard without a jury, and on the facts found it was held the plaintiffs were not within the Act and judgment went for defendants. This appeal is. from that judgment.
The sole business of this plant was the production of goods for commerce; and everyone who had an essential or necessary part in the processing of the fish would ordinarily be under the Act. These plaintiffs were substantially engaged in work necessary to the processing, for without steam and brine the work could not go on. Kirschbaum v. Walling, 316 U.S. 517, 62 S.Ct. 1116, 86 L.Ed. 1638. They were as truly producing goods for commerce, as defined by the Act, as were the employees who applied the steam and brine to the fish. Their time spent in watching was not so clearly a part of this’work, but it too was necessary, to prevent miscarriages and interruptions. An employee in charge of an engine or other machine is often for hours at a time only watching it.
But Congress made a very broad exemption from the Act which applies here : 29 U.S.C.A. § 213. “The provisions of sections 206 and 207
During work weeks, if any, in which there was no processing going on, and hence only watching was done by the plaintiffs, they do not come under the Act because they were not employed in commerce, and were not producing any goods for commerce.
Judgment affirmed.
These are Sections 6 and 7 of the Act fixing minimum wages and maximum hours.