TYSON FOODS, INC. v. BOUAPHAKEO

By Courtney Sokol.

On March 22, in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, upheld an Eighth Circuit ruling that certified a group of workers at Tyson Foods as a class under both a Rule 23(B)(3) class action and a Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) collective action. Tyson Foods did not pay its employees for time spent “donning and doffing” necessary protective gear. The employees argued that Tyson Foods violated FLSA and the Iowa Wage Payment Collection Law by not paying appropriate compensation for time spent putting on and taking off the protective clothing at the beginning and end of the day and lunch break. While the central issues addressed by the Court address certification of a class with non-identical members, of which many were uninjured, the decision offers broader implications for the strength of worker protections.

Delivering the opinion of the Court, Justice Kennedy noted the grueling and dangerous conditions that Tyson’s workers experienced along with the necessity of such gear. Until 1998, the workers were paid under a system called “gang-time,” where employees were compensated for time spent only at their workstations. This time did not include when they were required to put on or take off protective gear. In response to a federal-court injunction, Tyson in 1998, began to pay all employees for an additional 4-minute period called “K-code time.” The four-minute period is the time estimated by Tyson for how long employees needed to put on their gear. However, in 2007, Tyson stopped K-code time, and instead only paid some employees beyond their gang-time wages for time spent dressing and undressing.

In response to this change, the employees filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, alleging FLSA violations. FLSA requires that a covered employee who works more than 40 hours a week receive excess time worked “at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which [the employee] is employed.” 29 U.S.C. §207(a). Additionally, FLSA requires employers to pay employees for activities which are integral and indispensable to their regular work, even if the work does not occur at the work station.

Here, the employees argued that putting on and taking off their protective gear were integral and indispensable to their hazardous work, and therefore, compensation for such is required by FLSA. The employees raised the same claim under the Iowa Wage Payment Collection Law, which includes FLSA mandated overtime.

At trial, the employees had to prove that they worked 40 hours or more per week in order to qualify for FLSA overtime. Respondents proposed to bifurcate proceedings by requesting that the District Court address first, whether the time spent preparing their protective gear was compensable under FLSA and how long the activity took on average; and second, a statistical methodology be used to determine how much each employee would recover.

Tyson Foods did not move for a hearing regarding either of the above issues raised by the employees, but instead challenged the class certification under FRCP Rule 23(B)(3) and FLSA collective action. Tyson Foods argued that the varying amounts of time it took employees to don and doff different protective equipment made the lawsuit too speculative for class-wide recovery.

The Court turned to its decision in Anderson v. Mt. Clemens to explain that when employers violate their statutory duty to keep proper records, which prevents employees from establishing how much time they spent doing uncompensated work, the “remedial nature of [FLSA] and the great public policy which it embodies . . . militate against making” the burden of proving uncompensated work “an impossible hurdle for employee[s].”

The court held that the class members were joined under a common question, which satisfies the requirements for a class-action suit irrespective of differences among the members. Although the case was decided on procedural grounds, Kennedy’s majority opinion put great emphasis on the danger of the Respondent’s profession paired with the necessity of the protective gear. In evoking the remedial nature of FLSA, the Court is seemingly united behind pro-labor sentiment.