Tyson Foods case goes before Supreme Court
STORM LAKE, Iowa | The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week on Tyson Foods' appeal of a $5.8 million class-action award to hundreds of workers at its Storm Lake, Iowa, plant.
Specifically, the case will determine whether Tyson ultimately must pay the judgment to more than 3,000 workers who were part of the lawsuit filed in 2007.
Generally, the court's ruling could have a significant impact nationwide on how courts certify large groups of plaintiffs to gain class-action status and also on wage and hour law.
The case is scheduled to be heard Tuesday. Each side will have 30 minutes to make statements before the justices and answer any questions from them.
Peg Bouaphakeo and other Tyson workers at the Storm Lake plant had sued in U.S. District Court in Sioux City in 2007, seeking overtime pay and damages for the unpaid time it took to put on and take off protective work clothes and equipment and walk to and from the production line. A jury awarded the workers the judgment, which was upheld by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014.
Tyson is challenging the means by which the class-action status was granted. The questions before the court are whether statistics should have been allowed to determine damages for all employees. Rather than base the damages on the average amount of time employees spent changing safety clothing, the award should have been assessed individually for each plaintiff, Tyson argues.
The Supreme Court also has been asked to determine if a class action can be certified and maintained when the class contains members who were not injured and therefore have no legal right to damages.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/business/tyson-foods-case-goes-before-supreme-court/article_9cc6ca22-5ad3-5517-8c97-0220dbe8ee5a.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-11-10/u-s-supreme-court-to-hear-tyson-food-case