Tyson Prepared Foods, Inc.

Unpaid Overtime

Summary:

On June 23, 2020, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, alongside ShellistLozarz Slobin LLP, filed a collective action against Tyson Prepared Foods, Inc. (“Tyson”), one of the largest meat processing and packaging companies in the world and the United Sates for unpaid wages. This lawsuit was brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, (“FLSA”), for Tyson’s failure to pay overtime wages and related damages owed to its Production Supervisors. Affected employees include current and former Production Supervisors employed by Tyson during the last three years who were paid with a salary and who did not receive overtime pay.

The lawsuit alleges that Production Supervisors were misclassified as exempt and should have been paid an hourly rate as opposed to a set salary. When they consistently worked over 40 hours per week, they should have been paid overtime. An employee’s job duties are what should classify workers as exempt or non-exempt from overtime and not their job title. In this case, even though these employees had the title of “Supervisor” they did not function as such and actually spent the majority of their time completing manual work. Production Supervisors claim they could not hire, fire, or make schedules for other employees and spent up to ninety percent of their time on production lines like the rest of the hourly workers. Their shifts were mostly spent setting up production line workstations, restocking supplies, cutting and processing meat products, operating grinding/cutting machines, operating cooking machines, sorting meat products, packing meat products, moving meat products throughout the processing plants, and stacking boxes. In order to complete this work they frequently worked over 40 hours per week, reaching approximately 80 hours per week due to their seven day work schedules. Even though they should have been paid an hourly rate as a non-exempt employee pursuant to their job duties, and received overtime premium pay when working over 40 hours per week, they were paid on a set salary basis. As a result, they did not receive all the overtime pay they were entitled to receive under the FLSA.

On October 23, 2020 Production Supervisors have also filed an expedited motion for conditional certification as a class and to have notice of the lawsuit be sent out to affected employees. If a collective action is conditionally certified as a class under the FLSA it allows one or more employees to bring an action for overtime compensation on “behalf of himself or themselves and other employees similarly situated.” They are then able to notify potential affected employees about the matter and choose to “opt-in” or bring a claim on their own behalf. These court- authorized notices protect against “misleading communications” by the parties and often expedite a resolution of the dispute. Based on their personal observations, Production Supervisors believe they should be conditionally certified as a class because regardless of the processing plant or division within a plant to which they are assigned to, Production Supervisor job duties do not change. They all have similar job duties consisting of non-exempt work related to production line work which does not require an advanced degree. The workers who brought the case believe that other Production Supervisors would be interested in learning about their rights and their ability to join this case.

To view the Expedited Motion for Conditional Certification and Notice click here.

Industries across the board often misclassify employees as exempt from receiving overtime in order to cut on labor costs at the workers expense. Certain job titles are categorized as salaried when the law actually requires them to be hourly due to the nature of the duties completed by the worker. Just because your job title labels you as a “supervisor” or “manager” doesn’t mean you aren’t actually entitled to overtime. If you find your self constantly working over forty hours per week without overtime, don’t hesitate to reach out to our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, for a free and confidential phone consultation at (212) 300-0375.

You can also view the filed complaint here.