Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a settlement reached yesterday in a class action lawsuit over the illegal failure to pay wages for time spent changing into and out of protective gear, Perdue Farms Inc. agreed to pay 60,000 workers at eighteen processing plants $10 million in back wages and to pay workers for time spent changing in the future. Yesterday?s settlement parallels Perdue?s $10 million settlement in a suit brought against the company by the U.S. Department of Labor earlier this year on behalf of 25,000 workers who had likewise been denied pay for time spent changing (see WIT for May 10, 2002). In addition to extending the period for which back wages will be calculated beyond that in the Labor Department settlement, the class action settlement also retroactively credits the pensions of the 60,000 workers for the owed wages.