Source: MEATINGPLACE, 10/8/14

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a wage case brought by workers against a House of Raeford poultry unit, meaning an appellate court decision to reduce monetary awards for the employees will stand.

The Columbia Farms Inc. workers had sought to have the decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the donning-and-doffing case overturned. That decision reduced awards, given to the workers at the district court level, for unpaid wages and attorneys’ fees.

The original lawsuit filed in 2009 by the Greenville, S.C., plant workers arose out of Columbia Farms’ policy to pay employees based on time spent working on the processing floor and not time spent putting on required clothing before and after doing production work.

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