Labor Law-Fair Labor Standards Act– Coverage of Construction Workers

Respondent construction firm was engaged in building a dam, the sole purpose of which was to enlarge a reservoir that supplied water to the city of Corpus Christi, Texas. Industrial producers of goods for interstate commerce and operators of instrumentalities of interstate commerce consumed nearly half of the water supplied by the city’s system. The Secretary of Labor sought an injunction against violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act The district court granted the injunction; the court of appeals reversed, relying primarily upon the “new construction” doctrine. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, four Justices dissenting. Although the new construction rule was not a proper basis upon which to deny coverage, construction workers in this case, nevertheless, were too remotely related to the production goods for interstate commerce to come within the scope of the act. Mitchell v. H. B. Zachry Co., 362 U.S. 310 (1960).