The Supreme Court has ruled for more than 3,000 workers at a Tyson Foods Inc. pork-processing plant in Iowa in a pay dispute with the company.
The justices voted 6-2 on Tuesday to reject new limits Tyson asked them to impose on the ability of workers to band together to challenge pay and workplace issues.
Instead, the court upheld a $5.8 million judgment against the Springdale, Arkansas-based company for not paying employees for time spent putting on and taking off protective work clothes and equipment before wielding sharp knives in slaughtering and processing the animals.
Tyson argued in its appeal that it should not have been forced to defend a class-action lawsuit that claims it failed to pay thousands of "knife-wielding" employees and others for time spent putting on and taking off protective work clothes and equipment at its Storm Lake, Iowa, plant. The employees do their jobs on the plant's slaughter or "kill" floor and on the processing or "fabrication" floor.
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