May 10—A federal jury has awarded more than $22 million in back wages to East Penn Manufacturing Co. employees after finding the company did not pay workers for the time it took them to change their clothes and shower.

The award is the largest ever recorded verdict obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

East Penn officials said Wednesday that despite the announcement of the award they stand by the way they have paid employees.

The verdict came after a 30-day jury trial that resulted from a lawsuit against East Penn that was filed by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2018. The department claimed the Lyons-based company — one of the largest battery manufacturers in the world — failed to provide overtime pay to more than 7,500 uniformed workers between October 2014 and September 2017.

The department's Wage and Hour Division began an investigation in 2016 that ultimately led to the suit.

The investigation found that East Penn typically only paid workers for their scheduled eight-hour daily shifts. However, they did not pay employees for the additional time it took them to put on and remove protective equipment or to shower to avoid the dangers of lead exposure and other hazards, the department said.

When that time was added in, employees were working more than 40 hours per week, which under federal law requires they receive overtime pay, the department said.

"This verdict of more than $22 million is a long-overdue victory for more than 7,500 workers at East Penn Manufacturing," Jessica Looman, the department's principal deputy wage and hour administrator, said in a statement Wednesday. "Federal law requires employers to pay workers for the hours they work, including time these workers needed to protect themselves from dangerous workplace hazards."

Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said East Penn violated the Fair Labor Standards Act for years.

"Decades of settled law states that employers must pay employees for all hours worked, and this includes the time employees spend changing into and out of uniforms and showering where such activities, as here, were necessary and indispensable to their work," she said in Wednesday's statement. "Contrary to the law, East Penn allowed employees to work off-the-clock for years.

"The jury's verdict will go a long way towards making the employees whole and serves as a stark reminder for employers like East Penn to think twice before instituting policies designed to skirt the law."

Officials from the department said the $22.25 million awarded by the jury will be paid by East Penn to the department, which will distribute funds to the affected workers.

The department is asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to award another $22.25 million in liquidated damages. That money, if granted, would also be distributed to affected workers.

East Penn response

A statement provided Wednesday by East Penn stressed that the $22.25 million award is still not final and that the company was not found to have acted in "a knowing or reckless disregard of the law."

"East Penn had made every effort to comply with the laws as it understood them," the statement reads. "As a company, it stands behind the time paid to employees to put on and take off uniforms and to shower. The company believes it provided proper compensation for these activities and was fair in determining the reasonable time required to perform them."

The East Penn statement also says that, prior to the trial, the department claimed the company owed $214 million in back wages. However, the jury awarded only a fraction of that amount.

And even the amount that was awarded is still not set in stone, the statement said.

"The amount of the ultimate judgment is subject to further argument to the trial judge and adjustment," the statement said. "In addition, either the Department of Labor or East Penn may file an appeal."

The statement did not indicate if East Penn plans to file an appeal.

East Penn's defense team from Hunton Andrews Kurth also released a statement Wednesday, expressing they felt the jury's verdict was a win for the company because the jury rejected most of the damages and all remaining liability issues.

"We are pleased that the jury saw the government's overreaching in this case, in particular as to its claims that employees must be paid to put on and take off everyday protective items such as safety shoes, safety glasses and earplugs that supposedly start and end the workday," Michael J. Mueller, who led the defense, said. "In the damages portion of the trial, the jury's various findings are a rejection of 90% of the government's wage claim because the jury agreed with us that East Penn did not willfully violate the FLSA and rejected the government's unsupported high time estimates.

"On all the remaining liability issues, the jury agreed with our position entirely."

The statement from Hunton Andrews Kurth also took the department to task, saying that most of the employees interviewed during the investigation reported they were given enough time to put on and take off their uniforms.

"The overwhelming majority — 78% — said the time allotted was sufficient or more than sufficient and that they had no problem with their pay," the statement read. "Yet the government sued anyway."