Dive Brief:
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Tyson Foods unsuccessfully challenged a $5.8 million class action judgment on Tuesday before the the U.S. Supreme Court. It is one of three closely watched business-related class action cases before the court during its current term, according to Reuters.
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In a 6-2 majority decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court upheld a 2014 appeals court decision in favor of the employees.
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For this specific case, Tyson workers at an Iowa meat-processing facility, which employs around 1,300 people, sued in 2007 claiming they were entitled to overtime pay and damages due to the fact they were not paid for time spent taking protective equipment and walking to work stations.
Dive Insight
In the Tyson class action case, Reuters reports, the court considered the use of data to determine liability and damages. Businesses consider that to be "trial by formula" that violates defendants' due process rights. Rather, Reuters reports, the business community believes each claim should be assessed person by person for 3,000 current and former employees who sued.
In his decision, Justice Kennedy said while corporate defendants "may urge adoption of broad and categorical rules governing the use of representative and statistical evidence in class actions, this case provides no occasion to do so."
