A group of Smithfield slaughterhouse and distribution workers have filed a collective Thaction lawsuit against their employer, saying Smithfield shorted them overtime pay by refusing to use their COVID hazard pay hourly bonus to calculate their time-and-a-half wages.
On April 14, attorneys with the firm of Fish Potter Bolaños, of Naperville, filed suit in Chicago federal court against Lisle-based Smithfield Fresh Meats. The Smithfield parent company, Smithfield Foods, is based in Smithfield, Virginia.
The complaint was filed on behalf of named plaintiffs Kevin Winking, Summer Hollis and James Kilbane. According to the complaint, Winking and Hollis worked at a Smithfield plant in downstate Monmouth, while Kilbane worked at a Smithfield facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina.
According to the complaint, Smithfield operates meatpacking plants and distribution facilities throughout the U.S., Mexico and Europe. In the U.S., the complaint says Smithfield operates 16 slaughterhouses, 40 production plants and six distribution centers, among other facilities.
Smithfield sells food products under a range of brands, including Eckrich, Nathan’s, Farmland, Armour and Kretschmar, as well as the eponymous Smithfield, among others.
The complaint accuses Smithfield of violating federal labor, wage and hour law in the way it has calculated overtime pay for its workers.
According to the complaint, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smithfield instituted what it called a “Responsibility Bonus” to help entice employees to continue working under the threat of infection from the virus.
The bonus took the form of an additional $5 per hour tacked on to all production and distribution center workers’ regular hourly wages, according to the complaint.
“This bonus was well-deserved,” the complaint said. “These workers were literally risking their lives by potentially contracting COVID-19.”
However, the complaint asserts Smithfield did not include that $5 hourly bonus when calculating time-and-a-half overtime pay owed to workers in those facilities who worked more than 40 hours per week during the time period in which the “Responsibility Bonus” remained in effect.
The complaint asserts this violates the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which they said should require such hourly bonus pay to be calculated in with regular wages to figure overtime wages.
The complaint asserts “thousands of other current and former employees” for Smithfield should be included in the collective action, along with the three named plaintiffs.
The lawsuit asks the court to order Smithfield to pay the allegedly underpaid overtime compensation, plus interest, and “an additional amount equal as liquidated damages.” They further ask for attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys John Kunze, Patrick Cowlin and David Fish, of Fish Potter Bolaños.