Source: MEATINGPLACE, 10/4/13


A U.S. District Court in Nebraska on Wednesday ordered Tyson Foods Inc. to pay about $5 million in a donning and doffing class action lawsuit filed in 2008 by workers at the company’s Dakota City beef plant, according to court documents.

The Tyson employees will receive $3.3 million of the award, as compensation for time spent on donning and doffing activities before and after shifts and on unpaid meal breaks. The state will receive the remainder of the reward for distribution, because punitive damages are not allowed in Nebraska.

A jury determined that employees in the kill department spent, on average, 5.79 minutes per day performing the activities at issue, and employees in the processing department spent 4.56 minutes

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Judge Joseph Bataillon called Tyson’s damages proposal “yet another attempt by Tyson to skirt its obligations … to record and pay its employees for actual time.”

Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company disagrees with the court’s factual and legal conclusions and will appeal the ruling.

“This case is another example of an ongoing nationwide legal debate over what types of activities are compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act and under certain state laws,” Mickelson said in a statement emailed to Meatingplace. “We value our employees and strive to comply with federal and state wage and hour laws that are not precise in their description of which pre- and post-shift activities are compensated.”

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