Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 3/22/16


The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a $5.8 million lower court judgment against Tyson Foods regarding pay for 3,000 pork plant workers for time spent putting on and taking off protective clothes and equipment.

On a 6-2 vote, the court rejected Tyson’s assertion the lower court erred in certifying a class-action because doing so failed to account for different circumstances among individual employees and included hundreds of those who were not injured and therefore “have no legal right to any damages.”

Legal analysts have said the case could change how wage-and-hour class actions are litigated. More than a dozen amicae curae briefs, including those from Wal-Mart Stores and the National Association of Manufacturers, followed Tyson’s brief in a case.

Tyson pays employees at its Storm Lake, Iowa, pork plant in a “gang-time” system, which pays them “from the time the first piece of product passes their work stations until the last piece of product passes.” The company also pays a fixed amount of extra time called “K-Code” time to knife-wielding employees for donning/doffing related activities.

Employees at Storm Lake originally sued the company in 2007 claiming the company failed to compensate them for what they argue is overtime work. They sought and won class-action status. Tyson fought it, saying damages could only be determined on an individual basis.

Some 70 percent of the class that was certified was knife-wielding employees already receiving a fixed amount of extra “K-Code” time for donning/doffing-related activities.

Tyson reaction
"We respect the judgment of the U.S. Supreme Court, and are disappointed with the result," said Tyson Foods General Counsel David Van Bebber in an email. "However, we are also heartened by the divided Court’s consideration and analysis of serious issues affecting the sufficiency of proof required to maintain a class action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. We are studying the opinion and, in particular, the issue of whether damages can be lawfully allocated to ensure that uninjured class members do not recover from the jury’s lump sum award."

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