Poultry company settles OT case
US - A Missouri company has agreed to pay more than $1.2 million in back wages to thousands of employees for uncompensated overtime, the U.S. Labor Department announced Tuesday.George's Processing Inc., a poultry processing plant in Cassville, had refused to pay its employees for time they spent putting on and removing protective clothing and walking to and from their work stations.
The settlement, filed in federal court in Springfield, covers 5,482 current and former employees of the company who worked from Nov. 19, 2000, to April 15, 2006.
The agreement comes six months after a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated case that companies must pay plant workers for the time it takes to change into protective clothing and safety gear and walk to production areas.
Source: News-leader