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INTEGRITY STAFFING SOLUTIONS, INC. v. BUSK 

Opinion of the Court 

ligatory”).  An  activity  is  therefore  integral  and  indispen-
sable  to  the  principal  activities  that  an  employee  is  em-
ployed  to  perform  if  it  is  an  intrinsic  element  of  those 
activities  and  one  with  which  the  employee  cannot  dis-
pense  if  he  is  to  perform  his  principal  activities.  As  we 
describe below, this definition, as applied in these circum-
stances,  is  consistent  with  the  Department  of  Labor’s
regulations.

Our  precedents  have  identified  several  activities  that
satisfy this test.  For example, we have held compensable 
the  time  battery-plant  employees  spent  showering  and
changing  clothes because the chemicals in the plant were
“toxic  to  human  beings”  and  the  employer  conceded  that
“the  clothes-changing  and  showering  activities  of  the 
employees  [were]  indispensable  to  the  performance  of 
their  productive  work  and  integrally  related  thereto.” 
Steiner, supra, at 249, 251.  And we have held compensa-
ble the time meatpacker employees spent sharpening their 
knives  because  dull  knives  would  “slow  down  production” 
on the assembly line, “affect the appearance of the meat as 
well as the quality of the hides,” “cause waste,” and lead to
“accidents.”  Mitchell  v.  King  Packing  Co.,  350  U. S.  260, 
262  (1956).  By  contrast,  we  have  held  noncompensable 
the  time  poultry-plant  employees  spent  waiting  to  don 
protective  gear  because  such  waiting  was  “two  steps  re-
moved from the productive activity on the assembly line.” 
IBP, supra, at 42. 

The  Department  of  Labor’s  regulations  are  consistent
with  this  approach.  See  29  CFR  §790.8(b)  (2013)  (“The 
term  ‘principal  activities’  includes  all  activities  which  are 
an integral part of a principal activity”); §790.8(c) (“Among
the  activities  included  as  an  integral  part  of  a  principal 
activity  are  those  closely  related  activities  which  are
indispensable  to  its  performance”).    As  an  illustration, 
those  regulations  explain  that  the  time  spent  by  an  em-
ployee  in  a  chemical  plant  changing  clothes  would  be