Evening star., 1946-12-31
Portal Pay Suits Seen
Stirring New Strife
Industry Held Likely to Counter
on Time Not Worked
By David Laurence

With all the exhortation from the So
called Liberal" circles about how man
agement and labor should get together
and how usually it's managements fault
that they don't-there is no more con-
spicuous illustration of how to promote
bad feeling and bitterness than in the
action of the CIo in urging its unions
to file ''portal-to- portal" pay suits.
The theory that management must
pay for time spent in walking from
time clock to workbench or in wash
ing up or changing clothes means that
labor unions are introducing new
source Of friction-just how many min
utes of the day constitute a work day.
If attention be focused now on min
utes consumed in walking, the employer
may start asking about counterclaims
for time spent in talking and for time
not worked at the workbench.
Usually there is nothing in the COL
lective bargaining contracts which says
that employees must do work for the
40 hours for which they are paid. But
in the portal to- portar' suits the courts
now are about to figure out what con-
stitutes an actual work week. Employ
ers will put In counterclaims, so that
courts may finally have to upset some
of the union claims with an acceptance
of employer claims with respect to min
utes not worked.
"Time Not Worked"
Thus, Is the work week all the time
spent on the premises or is it all the
time spent in work? The famous Mount
Clemens pottery case decided by the
Supreme Court did not say explicitly
that all time spent on the premises is
working time, but did allow for min
utes not worked In going to and from
a workbench The courts in specific
cases presumably are expected to figure
out the exact facts and hence employers
will be tempted to argue that employees
in many instances were not docked for
a few minutes of tardiness at the time
clock or that they were not docked for
coming back from rest periods or lunch
a few minutes late.
If these matters are to be settled by
letter of the "portal-to-porta" pay de-
cision of the Supreme Court could
compel it-then the whole subject of
what constitutes work in. the. eyes of
the law may have to be determined.
Thus, in many instances, there will be
no 'portal-to-portal" damages unless
the total time exceeds 40 hours and
runs into overtime. But in those in
stances where employers can put in
counterclaims for 5 or 10 minutes per
day, the courts will have to decide on
the total time worked minus time not
worked.
Labor unions have long insisted In
|. some industries on payment for time
not worked. Congress has been asked
again and again to legislate on this
point in what is known as feather
bedding rules. Now with the portal
to-portal' pay suits, attention will be
fixed on time not worked" as matter
that needs remedy also.
Fair Play Needed Now.
Relations between management and
unions need improvement and thought
ful students of the problem have come
to the conclusion that what is needed
is mutual trust and fair play. Seizing
on the technicality in a vague decision
by the Supreme Court as a means Of
extorting huge sums from employers
or as means of trading such claims
for collective bargaining concessions
does not put labor union leadership in
very good light in America at time
when labor unions need to win friends.
1t Is significant that the American
Federation of Labor is not rushing in
to urge the filing of portal to- portal"
pay suits. Apparently this organization,
which has had many years more of ex-
perience with trade union practice than
the CIO, knows that Congress will rec
ognize the 'portal-to-portal' contro-
versy as racket and will put a stop
to it, leaving bad feeling between un-
ions and management that could Just
as we'll have been avoided.
Collective bargaining ARRANGEMENTS
and custom in industry have long de-
termined rates of pay. If the Federal
Government now is to fix rates and
the work week in each factory through
court decisions or administrative rul-
ings, the courts and the governmental
agencies will be piled higher than they
were in the bootlegging days of the
Volstead Act