Source: MEATINGPLACE, 5/27/15

Tyson Foods is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a nearly $6 million donning-and-doffing judgment, arguing that a lower court should not have certified the case as a class action.

Tyson argued in a reply brief that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals improperly certified a class by averaging a sample that included uninjured class members, in conflict with other circuit courts.

The company contends hundreds of members were included who were not injured and would receive zero damages in an individual lawsuit.

Workers in Tyson Foods v. Peg Bouaphakeo sued Tyson for not paying them for time spent walking to their worksites and donning and doffing protective equipment at the company’s meat-processing plant in Storm Lake, Iowa.

A jury found in favor of the plaintiff class, and the district court and court of appeals last year rejected challenges to the verdict.

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