By Bonnie M. Boryca
Employees often rely on the Nebraska Wage Payment and Collection Act (WPCA) when they bring claims for unpaid back wages and withheld compensation. The WPCA guarantees a lot of rights for employees—but can it form the basis for class claims alleging unpaid wages for the time workers spent donning and doffing protective gear if compensation for that time wasn’t covered in a written agreement? Read on to find out.
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Manual Acosta, Luis Montoya, and Martin Hinojosa brought a class action against Tyson Foods, Inc., on behalf of employees working at Tyson’s plant in Madison. They claimed that Tyson failed to pay them wages for the time they spent before and after shifts donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE) and clothing, cleaning and maintaining PPE and clothing, and walking to and from the production line, lockers, and wash stations.
Compensation for employees’ pre and post shift time was an issue Tyson considered on multiple occasions. Before 2007, the company entered into a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in which it agreed to provide compensation for 4 minutes of pre and post shift time to employees who used knives.