POULTRY PROCESSING WORKERS SEEK PAYMENT
FOR ALL TIME WORKED FROM BUTTERBALL
MINNEAPOLIS: Poultry processing employees filed a class action lawsuit today against Butterball,
LLC for back wages alleged to be owed to hundreds of poultry workers at the Carthage, Missouri
poultry processing plant. Butterball, the largest turkey producer in the US, is headquartered in Garner,
North Carolina.
The class action lawsuit, filed on Monday June 30, 2008 in federal court in Missouri, seeks to represent
current or former employees at the Carthage, Missouri Butterball plant. A similar lawsuit was filed in
April of this year on behalf of workers at the Butterball plant in Ozark, Arkansas.
The lawsuit alleges workers were not paid from the moment they start putting on and taking off
protective clothing (donning and doffing), sanitizing gear and equipment, and walking to and from the
production floor, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and various state laws.
The workers are represented by the law firms of Larson King, LLP of St. Paul, MN and Zimmerman
Reed, PLLP, of Minneapolis, MN.
Gordon Rudd, an attorney for the employees, said that "This lawsuit is just the first step in assuring
these employees receive fair wages for their hard work. It’s an important step that will allow us to
inform employees at Butterball's poultry processing plant in Carthage, Missouri of their fundamental
employment rights, and also provides the means for these employees to join this lawsuit."
The time workers spend getting ready for their shifts, and for finishing the end of their shifts, is
significant – sometimes up to 30 minutes each day. "It appears that despite longstanding case law
confirming that processing workers are entitled to pay for donning and doffing under the FLSA, the
plants continue to not pay workers for all their time worked. Millions of dollars have been paid to
settle some of these class action lawsuits, and some workers have been awarded thousands of dollars in
back pay," said Joe Snodgrass, another attorney for the workers.
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