OMAHA, Mar. 14 — Two meatpacking plants in Omaha face nearly identical federal lawsuits accusing them of not paying thousands of workers for all their work.
Lawyers for the workers are seeking class-action status for the lawsuits filed last week against Greater Omaha Packing Co. and Nebraska Beef Ltd. A total of 16 people - seven former employees and one current employee at each plant - are listed as plaintiffs.
Both companies have violated state and federal wage and labor laws for years, the lawsuits said.
The plants have policies that production workers are paid "only during the time that they are present on the actual production assembly line under a system known as `gang time' or `line time,'" the lawsuits said.
The workers are seeking unpaid wages and overtime for time before and after assembly line work - time spent putting on uniforms and safety gear, sanitizing equipment, retrieving, sharpening and putting away knives, walking between work sites and other duties.
That work outside production assembly line work amounts to between 30 and 40 minutes each day per worker, according to the lawsuits.
The workers' lawyers estimate about 1,500 former and current workers at Greater Omaha workers and 1,800 at Nebraska Beef have been affected over the past four years. Workers at the plants before that time are not covered under Nebraska's statute of limitations.
A message left Tuesday at Greater Omaha by The Associated Press was not immediately returned. Several calls to Nebraska Beef went unanswered.
Both companies have 20 days to respond after they're served with notice of the lawsuits.
By MARGERY A. GIBBS
The Associated Press, 03/11/08
