WAGES & SALARIES
A way out of the jungle of portal-to-portal pay suits was suggested last week by the U.S. Department of Justice. It asked Detroit's Federal Court judge, Frank A. Picard, to dismiss the Mount Clemens Pottery Co. case (TIME, Dec.
16), the test suit on which portal-to-portal claims totaling almost $5 billion are based. The Justice Department argued that the "walking" time claimed by employees was "trifling." In upholding portal-to-portal principle, the Supreme Court had left it to the lower courts (in this case Judge Picard) to determine whether a claim was based on a trifling matter of time. If...