Court reverses 2 Tyson verdicts

Don-and-doffing payouts rejected

Tyson Foods does not have to pay nearly $24 million to workers and for the time spent putting on and taking off safety gear, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

The decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two lower court decisions -- an $18.77 million award to workers at a Madison, Neb., pork processing plant, and a $4.96 million award concerning a Dakota City, Neb., beef processing plant.

"We're pleased with the rulings," said Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Tyson, in a statement. "We continue to believe we're paying our people appropriately and, like other businesses, have strived to comply with federal wage and hour laws that are not precise in describing what activities should be compensated."

The workers who sued Tyson in 2008 said the Springdale-based company should pay them for the roughly 30 minutes spent preparing to start and end a shift. The employees were paid for their time on the assembly line plus about four minutes for putting on and taking off uniforms, sanitizing equipment and other required preparation.

Tyson paid its employees at these plants in a "gang-time" system, which compensates workers from the time the first piece of product passes their work stations until the last piece of product.

The company also paid a fixed amount of extra time to compensated employees for activities related to preparing for a shift and leaving at the end of it. When the lawsuits were filed, that was about four minutes to eight minutes, depending on the employee's job for the shift. That time has gone up to 20 minutes since the lawsuit was filed.

U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Colloton wrote that the lower court misinterpreted the Nebraska Wage Payment and Collection Act, which lets workers sue for unpaid wages. He said there wasn't enough evidence that Tyson agreed to pay the extra wages to the Madison workers, and that there was no evidence of an agreement regarding extra pay for workers at the Dakota City plant.

"These cases are part of a continuing nationwide legal debate over what types of activities are compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act and under certain state laws," Mickelson said in the statement. "In fact, there have been numerous, similar 'donning and doffing' cases filed over the years involving the food industry and many other kinds of jobs, including steel and auto workers and even police officers."

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a similar case, which could weaken class-action lawsuits, this fall involving a Tyson meatpacking plant in Storm Lake, Iowa.

In that case, the 8th Circuit had upheld a ruling that ordered Tyson to pay $5.8 million to workers. Damages for the entire class-action lawsuit were determined by statistics -- the average amount of that a sample of workers took on and off protective gear.

According to a brief filed with the Supreme Court earlier this month, Tyson will argue that damages for the class-action lawsuit should not have centered around statistical evidence.

Business on 08/27/2015

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