Jury sides with Tyson Foods

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: Omaha World Herald/Omaha.com

A federal jury has decided Tyson Foods hasn't been underpaying workers at its Lexington, Neb., plant.

The workers who sued argued that Tyson should pay them for time they spend putting on uniforms and safety gear, sanitizing equipment, sharpening knives and other duties. They say they're only paid for their time on the assembly line.

Similar lawsuits have been filed against other meatpacking companies.

Tyson argued that employees shouldn't be compensated for the time spent putting on gear, and the jury agreed Thursday.



Read more: http://www.dealsomaha.com/article/20110527/NEWS97/705279810/0#jury-sides-with-tyson-foods

[bluerum]

1. That is bogus.

[OmahaBlueDog]

..which is why I posted it

Hey..Omaha Steve can't be everywhere.

[rpannier]

20. You mean Omaha Steve has a life outside of DU?

Of all the nerve! :hide:

[The Magistrate]

2. Twelve Blithering Idiots, Sir

[drm604]

3. What about sanitizing equipment and sharpening knives?

The article is unclear about that. Did you jury find for Tyson on everything or just on the issue of suiting up?

[OmahaBlueDog]

7. Sadly, all I can find is this same AP copy at several sources

If I find a better article, I will post it.

[Sonoman]

4. We're having the samediscussion re: Prison Guards.

If one cannot punch the clock (or whatever they do) until one is fully outfitted then something is amiss.

Sonoman

[ixion]

5. not only should they be compensated for putting on their gear, etc, they should be compensated for

the time it takes to drive to work, in my opinion. I've never understood why that was tolerated. When you walk out that door in the morning, you're time is effectively the company's.

[bertman]

10. That is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever read.

[bemildred]

11. I think it's the only rational view. nt

[rocktivity]

15. they can't DO their work without putting on the gear, can they?

case closed.

:mad:
rocktivity

[dmr]

25. Agree. Once they get to work, & their employer requires them

to make special preparations in which to perform their job, then that is a part of their job activities. They should be compensated.

[DissedByBush]

19. You can affect that time

By your proximity to your work. Why should you get paid for two hours extra work a day because you decided to live far away from the place I work ten minutes from?

But once you're there, suiting up to company standards, putting on safety gear the company requires, sharpening knives because the company requires it, that time should be paid for by the company.

[JoeyT]

26. I agree they should be "on the clock" the second they walk into the building,

but not the second they walk out their front door. That would just encourage people to get jobs as far away as possible and commute. It's already a problem that people can't find jobs near where they live and are forced to commute.

[A Simple Game]

30. I like this, let's expand on your line of thinking.

I should get paid from the time I get out of bed and put on my work clothes.

Look at all of the overtime I could get if I stopped for a couple of beers or at the grocery store on the way home.
What if I forgot to change my clothes after work, I should be able to claim all of that time, shouldn't I?

[bemildred]

6. Brainwashing works! nt

[mwb970]

8. Corporations win over people once again.

Just more endless right-wing crap. The downward spiral continues.

[Odin2005]

9. Lawyers make sure all jurors are morons.

[bemildred]

12. Unless the jurors are smarter than the lawyers. nt

[groundloop]

13. Yeah - 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty !!!!!

(I think I stole that from George Carlin)

[mikekohr]

14. Organize, Unionize nt

[unkachuck]

16. "...should pay them for...

...time they spend putting on uniforms and safety gear, sanitizing equipment, sharpening knives and other duties."

....it appears to be an obvious attempt by Tyson to parse the workday into compensated and uncompensated minutes, piecework....

....of course these workers should be compensated for all work and all company related actions to employment including, going to the bathroom, washing your hands, changing your clothes, etc....at the end of the work day, you should leave your place of employment in the same condition you entered....

....for the life of me, I'll never understand the mindset of the people on this jury....and we wonder why our standard of living has fallen so precipitously in America....

[madrchsod]

17. the steel mill i worked at did`t pay us for getting dressed,tools, etc..

we came in at least a half hour early so we could relieve the guy we were replacing. we punched in but we were paid the time we were supposed to start the job. if we did`t we`d hear about from the guy we were supposed to relive. no one from the company complained about this practice.

one thing we had was a very strong union, membership,and years of negotiations.

the union forge shop i worked at did the same thing...we go in early,get dressed,and relieve the hammer crew. they took a shower and got dressed and punched out on the hour.

[rpannier]

21. and...

[U4ikLefty]

24. ...and he walked to work in the snow. uphill...both ways

and he was grateful

[FarLeftFist]

18. Officially boycotting Tyson.

This should be easy for me but lets be serious, if you're NOT paying your employees for sanitizing equipment and sharpening knives then expect them to do a shitty job with the sanitizing. I fully expect an e.coli outbreak at the facility any day now. This is the type of corporate slavery we will be held at without union representation. They want US to BE a machine.

[Scruffy1]

22. The only cure for this is Union.

[Luciferous]

23. My husband works for a union, and they don't get paid for stuff like that.

While I'm not saying that they shouldn't try and unionize, it still might not help them in regards to payment for time putting on uniforms, etc.

[Occulus]

27. I'm a Federal employee and a union member and I *do* get paid for this stuff.

ALL set-up, wash-up, and prep time is on the clock and paid time, period.

It's PART OF THE JOB.

I'm having a hard time believing some of the claims being made on this thread.

[Poll_Blind]

28. +1,000

PB

[OmahaBlueDog]

29. One odd thing is that a very similar case went against Tyson in Kansas

Source: http://www.stuevesiegel.com/CM/Press/TysonVerdictLaw360.asp

JURY SIDES WITH TYSON WORKERS IN FLSA CLASS ACTION
By Bibeka Shrestha

Law360, New York (March 17, 2011) --

A jury in Kansas awarded more than $500,000 to a class of Tyson Foods Inc. meatpacking workers Wednesday after finding the company had violated the Fair Labor

Standards Act by refusing to pay employees for time spent donning and doffing protective gear. After hearing evidence for seven days, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas found that Tyson Foods and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. had violated both the FLSA and the Kansas Wage Payment Act.

The jury concluded that FLSA violation were willful despite Tyson's protestations that any errors it made under the federal labor law were made in good faith. The finding allows the plaintiffs to receive the total value of unpaid wages as liquidated damages.

"After almost five years of litigation, this is a gratifying win," the plaintiffs' lead trial lawyer George Hanson said in a statement Wednesday. "Although we certainly hoped for a higher award, the bottom line is a jury found that Tyson violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and did so willfully."

***************

I note that in this instance, Tyson was found to have violated both a Federal, as wall as a state (Kansas) law.