Date: 11-06-2009

Case Style: Hilda L. Solis v. Tyson Foods, Inc.

Case Number: 2:02-cv-01174-VEH-TMP

Judge: Virginia Emerson Hopkins

Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (Jefferson County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: John A Black, Jeremy K. Fisher, Allison G. Kramer, Jeremiah Miller, and Biran W. Dougherty, United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Atlanta, Georgia; Joanna Hull, Sarah Starrett, Nichole W. Winnett, Robert Walter, and Jonahan D. Kronheim, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, D.C.

Defendant's Attorney: Janell Ahnert, Tony G. Miller, David M. Smith and Stephanie Houston Mays, Maynard Cooper & Gale, P.C., Birmingham, Alabama; Joel M. Cohn, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., Wahington, D.C.

Description: Hilda L. Solis sued Tyson Foods, Inc. on a Fair Labor Standards Act violation theory claiming that Defendant failed to keep accurate time records and failed to pay production workers for the time that they spend donning and doffing safety and sanitary gear, and performing other related work activities. The Labor Department wanted workers to be paid for " certain pre- and post-shift and meal period activities, such as putting on and taking off sanitary and protective clothing." Plaintiff sought between $5.8 million and $8 million in back wages for the Tyson workers over a nine year period.

Tyson denied that it did not pay its employees for all compensable work performed by them under the Wage and Hour Laws.

Outcome: Plaintiff's verdict for $250,000.00.

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: Editor's Comment: The case was fought to verdict by the United States Department of Labor based upon differing interpretations of the Wage and Hour laws that dictate to employers what they are required to pay their employers for work performing by them. Not paying employees for the activities in dispute in this case saves Tyson millions in labor costs at its processing plants across the country. This was a very good result for Tyson but probably is not the last word on the legal issues raised by the pleadings. We will see what the Eleventh Circuit has to say about the evidentiary rulings by the Court during the trial and the jury instructions used to instruct the jury on the law to be applied by it to the facts introduced during the trial.