Law360 Reports on Chicken Catchers’ Overtime Lawsuit Against Tyson Farms
Law360 reported on the collective action lawsuit that Murphy Anderson and the Legal Aid Justice Center filed against Tyson Farms, Inc. on behalf of chicken catchers and forklift operators.
The workers caught live chickens by hand on overnight crews at farms in Virginia and Maryland and loaded them onto trucks headed for Tyson’s processing plant in Temperanceville, Virginia. The article describes the workers’ allegations that Tyson denied them overtime pay even though their shifts often began around 1:30 a.m. and their workweeks regularly ran past 40 hours, sometimes reaching 60. Law360 reported that Tyson paid the workers a piece rate tied to the number of chickens caught, while Tyson itself decided how many birds each crew would catch. The article also covers the workers’ claims that Tyson told crews to slow down when the plant had more birds than it could process, required unpaid preparation time before each shift, and made workers wait for trucks without pay. It notes that some workers started catching chickens before they turned 18 and that the workers had to buy their own boots, masks, gloves, and safety glasses.
Law360 explained that the workers received paychecks from businesses tied to a labor contractor, but the complaint alleges that Tyson assigned, supervised, and controlled their work. The article also reports that the workers briefly stopped work in March to demand higher pay and protective equipment, and that Tyson stopped assigning work to their crews about two weeks later.
The article quotes the complaint’s observation that “for about a penny per bird, Tyson declined for years to pay the workers who caught those birds by hand, in the dark, for the hours they actually worked.” Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Jason Yarashes told Law360 that “Tyson can’t evade legal responsibility for these wage law violations.”
Murphy Anderson attorney Mark Hanna and George R. Murphy Fellow Maria Ortiz Pineda represent the workers, along with Legal Aid Justice Center attorneys Jason Yarashes, Rachel McFarland, and J. Nicole Medved. The case is Luna Sarabia et al. v. Tyson Farms, Inc., No. 2:26-cv-01137, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.