Meat Plant Workers Sue Tyson Foods Over Alleged Labor Law Violations, According to Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody LLP

17 May 2006

Backed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, workers at a Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) facility alleged in Kansas federal court late Monday that the world's largest chicken, beef and pork processor violated federal and state labor laws.

To date, 262 current and former workers at the Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., facility in Holcomb, Kan., have joined the lawsuit, alleging that they did not receive wages and overtime pay as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and Kansas state law.

Attorneys from Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody LLP, of Kansas City, Mo., and Outten & Golden LLP, of New York, represent the workers and will seek certification of the case as a class action that includes overtime-eligible Tyson workers who have worked at the 2,500-employee Holcomb facility during the past five years. The vast majority of workers at the Holcomb facility are immigrants, many of them from Latin America.

The case is "Garcia et al. v. Tyson Foods Inc. et al." (No. 06-2198-JWL) filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. The class representatives are Adelina Garcia, Jeronimo Vargas-Vera, and Antonio Garcia, all of Garden City, Kan.

The lawsuit filing comes after the Supreme Court's Nov. 8, 2005 unanimous decision in "IBP Inc. v. Alvarez" that meat plant workers had to be paid for time required to put on and remove protective clothing and safety gear and for time required to walk to and from work stations. Tyson acquired Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) in 2001, and Tyson continued IBP's unlawful wage and hour policies and practices at the Holcomb facility, according to the law firms.

Attorney George A. Hanson, of Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody's Kansas City, Mo., office, stated, "The Supreme Court's directive is clear: companies like Tyson cannot uniformly deny wages and overtime pay to their employees by requiring them to work 'off the clock.' Our clients exemplify America's hard-working immigrant population. They are lawfully employed, tax-paying workers, trying to live the American dream. The time has come for Tyson to comply with the law and properly compensate these workers who perform some of our nation's most dangerous factory jobs under the most difficult conditions imaginable."

Among the work duties that the Tyson workers at the Holcomb facility allege that they have not been paid for are: (1) changing into the required work uniforms and safety equipment that can include, among other things (depending on the task): work pants and shirts; safety jump suits; safety boots; hair nets; face nets; hard hats; aprons; belts with holsters and knifes; and hand and arm protection; and (2) walking to and from the changing area, work areas and break areas.

According to Ms. Garcia, who has worked at the Holcomb facility for nearly eight years, "The 'off the clock' work we do before and after shifts and breaks adds up to lot of time during the work year. The protective clothing and safety gear required in our jobs is necessary preparation for the hard and sometimes dangerous work we do."

Justin M. Swartz, an attorney with Outten & Golden's New York City office, stated, "Violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act are still pervasive in U.S. companies, but the Supreme Court ruling ends the debate over whether companies in the meat-packing and poultry processing industries can avoid paying workers their due compensation."

Last month, about 800 workers at a Tyson plant in Pasco, Wash., began receiving checks from an $8.4 million settlement from the company, ending a long legal battle over overtime compensation.

Media Contact:

Erin Powers, for Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody LLP, (281) 362-1411.

Attorney Contacts:

George A. Hanson or Eric L. Dirks of Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody LLP, 330 West 47th Street, Suite 250, Kansas City, Mo, 64112; (800) 714-0360 or (816) 714-7100; Fax: (816) 714-7101; E-mail: hanson@sshwlaw.com; Web: http://www.sshwlaw.com.

Source: prnewswire

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