Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 7/1/14


Former workers are taking to the Supreme Court their wage case against a House of Raeford poultry unit, according to court documents.

The Columbia Farms Inc. workers are looking to overturn a decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which whittled down awards given at district court level saying federal labor laws preempt their state law claims.

Columbia Farms had appealed a jury verdict in favor of the employees for $16,583 in unpaid wages, which the district court tripled to $49,749 plus attorneys’ fees and costs in the amount of $227,640. After a bench trial on the employees’ claims of retaliation against them for instituting workers’ compensation proceedings, the court found in favor of eight employees, ordering that five be reinstated and awarding back pay in the aggregate amount of $131,742.

The appeals court reversed the jury award, concluding that those claims were preempted by the federal Labor Management Relations Act and should have been dismissed. On the retaliation claims, the appeals court also reversed as to six employees “because they failed to present evidence satisfying the governing legal standards for recovery under state law” but affirmed the retaliation claims of two employees.

The suit, filed in 2009 by the Greenville, S.C., plant workers, arose out of Columbia Farms’ policy to pay workers based on “line time,” or that spent working on the processing floor and not time spent putting on required clothing before and after doing production work, and each side’s different understanding of the company policy.

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