(a) The effect on the Fair Labor Standards Act of the various
provisions of the Portal Act must necessarily be determined by viewing
the two acts as interelated parts of the entire statutory scheme for the
establishment of basic fair labor standards.7 The Portal Act
contemplates that employers will be relieved, in certain circumstances,
from liabilities or punishments to which they might otherwise be subject
under the Fair Labor Standards Act.8
But the act makes no express change in the national policy,
declared by Congress in section 2 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, of
eliminating labor conditions ``detrimental to the maintenance of the
minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general
well-being of workers.'' The legislative history indicates that the
Portal Act was not intended to change this general policy.9
The Congressional declaration of policy in section 1 of the Portal Act
is explicitly directed to the meeting of the existing emergency and the
correction, both retroactively and prospectively, of existing evils
referred to therein.10 Sponsors of the legislation in both
Houses of Congress asserted that it ``in no way repeals the minimum wage
requirements and the overtime compensation requirements of the Fair
Labor Standards Act'' 11 that it ``protects the legitimate
claims'' under that Act,12 and that one of the objectives of
the sponsors was to ``preserve to the worker the rights he has gained
under the Fair Labor Standards Act.'' 13 It would therefore
appear that the Congress did not intend by the Portal Act to change the
general rule that the remedial provisions of the Fair Labor Standards
Act are to be given a liberal interpretation 14 and
exemptions therefrom are to be narrowly construed and limited to those
who can meet the burden of showing that they come ``plainly and
unmistakably within (the) terms and spirit'' of such an
exemption.15
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 As appears more fully in the following sections of this
part, the several provisions of the Portal Act relate, in pertinent
part, to actions, causes of action, liabilities, or punishments based on
the nonpayment by employers to their employees of minimum or overtime
wages under the provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Section 13 of
the Portal Act provides that the terms, ``employer,'' ``employee,'' and
``wage'', when used in the Portal Act, in relation to the Fair Labor
Standards Act, have the same meaning as when used in the latter Act.
8 Portal Act, sections 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Sponsors of the legislation asserted that the provisions of the
Portal Act do not deprive any person of a contract right or other right
which he may have under the common law or under a State statute. See
colloquy between Senators Donnell, Hatch and Ferguson, 93 Cong. Rec.
2098; colloquy between Senators Donnell and Ferguson, 93 Cong. Rec.
2127; statement of Representative Gwynne, 93 Cong. Rec. 1557.
9 See references to this policy at page 5 of the Senate
Committee Report on the bill (Senate Rept. 48, 80th Cong., 1st sess.),
and in statement of Senator Donnell, 93 Cong. Rec. 2177; see also
statement of Senator Morse, 93 Cong. Rec. 2274; statement of
Representative Walter, 93 Cong. Rec. 4389.
10 Cf. House Rept. No. 71; Senate Rept. No. 48; House
(Conf.) Rept. No. 326, 80th Cong., 1st sess. (referred to hereafter as
House Report, Senate Report, and Conference Report); statement of
Representative Michener, 93 Cong. Rec. 4390; statement of Senator Wiley,
93 Cong. Rec. 4269, 4270; statement of Representative Gwynne, 93 Cong.
Rec. 1572; statements of Senator Donnell, 93 Cong. Rec. 2133-2135, 2176-
2178; statement of Representative Robison, 93 Cong. Rec. 1499; Message
of the President to Congress, May 14, 1947 on approval of the Act (93
Cong. Rec. 5281).
11 Statements of Senator Wiley, explaining the conference
agreement to the Senate, 93 Cong. Rec. 4269 and 4371. See also statement
of Senator Cooper, 93 Cong. Rec. 2295; statement of Representative
Robsion, 93 Cong. Rec. 1499, 1500.
12 Statement of Representative Michener, explaining the
conference agreement to the House of Representatives, 93 Cong. Rec.
4391. See also statement of Representative Keating, 93 Cong. Rec. 1512.
13 Statement of Senator Cooper, 93 Cong. Rec. 2300; see
also statements of Senator Donnell, 93 Cong. Rec. 2361, 2362, 2364;
statements of Representatives Walter and Robsion, 93 Cong. Rec. 1496,
1498.
14 Roland Electrical Co. v. Walling, 326 U.S. 657; United
States v. Rosenwasser, 323 U.S. 360; Brooklyn Savings Bank v. O'Neil,
324 U.S. 697.
15 See Phillips Co. v. Walling, 324 U.S. 490; Walling v.
General Industries Co., 330 U.S. 545.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(b) It is clear from the legislative history of the Portal Act that
the major provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act remain in full
force and effect, although the application of some of them is affected
in certain respects by the 1947 Act. The provisions of the Portal Act do
not directly affect the provisions of section 15(a)(1) of the Fair Labor
Standards Act banning shipments in interstate commerce of ``hot'' goods
produced by employees not paid in accordance with the Act's
requirements, or the provisions of section 11(c) requiring employers to
keep records in accordance with the regulations prescribed by the
Administrator. The Portal Act does not affect in any way the provision
in section 15(a)(3) banning discrimination against employees who assert
their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act, or the provisions of
section 12(a) of the Act banning from interstate commerce goods produced
in establishments in or about which oppressive child labor is employed.
The effect of the Portal Act in relation to the minimum and overtime
wage requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act is considered in this
part in connection with the discussion of specific provisions of the
1947 Act.
