Evening star., 1946-12-22
Portal Pay
Continued From First Page.l

itol Hill, and Congress came within
an ace of passing bill which
would have eased the liability for
most employers.
Both branches of Congress had
agreed to limit this liability to two
years-or three at the most-but
the proposal never came to a final
vote in the confused closing hours
of the 10Th session.
AS result big corporations are
being sued by unions for hundreds
of millions of dollars in behalf of
employees who have been walking to
work a few hundred yards or more
daily inside company property.
John L. Lewis started it all. He
won portal-to- portal pay for his
miners in 1943, and this under
ground travel time was upheld by
the Supreme Court in the now IA
nous Jewell Ridge Coal Co. case.
Justice Jackson revealed that the
recent personal flare-up in the Su-
preme Court dated back to that
case.
The Mt. Clemens pottery case
brought the issue down to the level
of every worker, however. The
miners position was acknowledged
to be somewhat different from that
of surface workers.
This is why the problem exists:
The Fair Labor Standards Act
said that after 1910 the work week
should be 40 hours in interstate
commerce, and that employers were
liable for payment of time and one
half for time worked beyond that.
Therefore a Supreme Court decision
on what constitutes working time"
is important.
Employer Is Liable for Time.
Suddenly it is determined that
for years a group of workers has
been working more than 40 hours a
week, because, under the Supreme
Court Interpretation, they have been
walking some distance to their jobs
after entering company property OF
have been taking minutes daily to
prepare for Work-thus have been
working"
The employer is, liable for this
time. and since he hasn't been pay
ing it, the worker has it coming to
him at overtime rates-and those
doubled because the worker had to
go to court to collect it!
For example. if it is determined
that five hours per week has been
spent travelling and preparing for
work on company property, and the
worker has been paid for the 40
hours at his job. he has an extra
7la hours pay due him, Therefore
if his. .paysrate was 81 per hour. under.
the law he would have SIS due him
fer eperg.Week this occurred hack to
BECK assfsr as tf1egERt tute
III sssaatatiens made the enaployer
liable In a given State
Millions Already Sought.
Mr.. Lewis District 50--the catch
all union for any group OF workers
who want to get under the mine
NOIkElS WlllS-WClC dLiO11S tAAS 1iA os
to take real advantage of this. The
Lewis union sued Dupont and big
match and chemical firms for huge
sums last summer.
Now the CIO steelworkers and auto
workers are bringing suit for hun
dreds OF millions of dollars, Soon
the electrical workers, other member
of the CIO big three" about to ne
gotiate with giant mass-production
industry, will follow. Yesterday the
AF'L United Auto Workers disclosed
plans to join the legal battle.
How much of this is bargaining
and how much will be pressed is UP
to the individual union, says C1C
President Philip Murray.
The AFL as a whole hasn't yet got
serious about it, but some of its Off
cials indicate that organization Is
drooling at the prospect.
What worries the Chamber OF
Commerce of the United States and
the National Association of Manu-
facturers, however, is that even
where settlements are reached with
unions across the bargaining table
to cover this liability, it does not