SPRINGDALE, Ark. – Tyson Foods Inc. petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a judgment in a long-running court case in which employees claimed they were not fully paid for time spent donning and doffing protective gear before 2010. Plaintiffs in the case include current and former employees at a Tyson pork processing plant in Storm Lake, Iowa.

The employees won their case in US District Court and were awarded $5.8 million in damages and attorney’s fees. But Tyson appealed the judgment to the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which later upheld the lower court’s ruling.


Tyson argued in its petition to the Supreme Court that the Eighth Circuit wrongly certified the lawsuit as a class action.

The case is Tyson Foods Inc. v. Bouaphakeo et al., case number 14-1146.