A gamble made by Tyson several years ago didn’t pay off, and now the company is paying $32 million to compensate employees for the time they spend donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE), according to a consent decree filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ga.  Workers sued the company, stating they were deprived of compensation for the time they spent putting on and taking off PPE, time they considered part of their job. Tyson agreed to make payments averaging $1,000 per worker to 17,000 current and former U.S. employees.  Tyson settled a similar dispute last year with the Labor Department by agreeing to change its compensation policy.  In 2002, the Department of Labor reached an agreement with Perdue Farms Inc., in which the company agreed to change current and future pay practices at all of its U.S. facilities to compensate workers for the time they must spend donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE).

Under the Consent Judgment, Perdue Farms agreed to retroactively pay its processing employees on the production line an additional eight minutes each workday for time spent putting on and taking off certain clothing and equipment, as well as developing an initiative to record and pay employees for such activities going forward. The agreement was estimated at that time to be worth approximately $10 million for Perdue’s current and past employees.  At the same time the Perdue agreement was reached, the DOL filed a similar suit in Alabama against Tyson Foods Inc., alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama by the Labor Department Solicitor's Office on behalf of workers in Tyson's Blountsville, Ala. poultry processing facility.  In addition to seeking back wages and liquidated damages for current and former employees at that facility, the complaint also sought an injunction restraining Tyson from future violations of the FLSA at all its domestic poultry processing facilities. (click on link to read full story)