These principles have guided the Administrator in the enforcement of
the Act. Two cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court further illustrate
the types of activities which are considered an integral part of the
employees' jobs. In one, employees changed their clothes and took
showers in a battery plant where the manufacturing process involved the
extensive use of caustic and toxic materials. (Steiner v. Mitchell, 350
U.S. 247 (1956).) In another case, knifemen in a meatpacking plant
sharpened their knives before and after their scheduled workday
(Mitchell v. King Packing Co., 350 U.S. 260 (1956)). In both cases the
Supreme Court held that these activities are an integral and
indispensable part of the employees' principal activities.
