Tyson Foods, Inc., v. Bouaphakeo (577 U.S. 442)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 22, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 577 U.S. 442 · 136 S. Ct. 1036
- Decided
- March 22, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 6–2
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Unions
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice KENNEDYdelivered the opinion of the Court. Following a jury trial, a class of employees recovered $2.9 million in compensatory damages from their employer for a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), 52 Stat. 1060, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq .The employees' primary grievance was that they did not receive statutorily mandated overtime pay for time spent donning and doffing protective equipment. The employer seeks to reverse the judgment. It makes two arguments. Both relate to whether it was proper to permit the employees to pursue their claims as a class. First, the employer argues the class should not have been certified because the primary method of proving injury assumed each employee spent the same time donning and doffing protective gear, even though differences in the composition of that gear may have meant that, in fact, employees took different amounts of time to don and doff. Second, the employer argues certification was improper because the damages awarded to the class may be distributed to some persons who did not work any uncompensated overtime. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit concluded there was no error in the District Court's decision to certify and maintain the class. This Court granted certiorari. 576 U.S. ----, 135 S.Ct. 2806, 192 L.Ed.2d 846 (2015). I Respondents are employees at petitioner Tyson Foods' pork…
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