Lawsuit Claims Hatfield Production Workers Owed Wages for Time Spent in COVID-19 Screenings

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Hatfield Quality Meats, Inc. faces a proposed class action that alleges the pork processor failed to pay production workers for time spent undergoing COVID-19 screenings.

According to the lawsuit, workers at Hatfield’s Pennsylvania meat processing, packaging and shipping plants were not paid for “significant amounts of time” between when they arrived at the facilities and began the COVID-19 screening process and when they clocked in for their shifts. The lawsuit alleges this unpaid time constitutes hours worked as defined under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act and should have been compensated at the employees’ overtime rates given they routinely worked more than 40 hours per week.

Hatfield, a division of pork producer Clemens Family Corporation, implemented a company-wide policy following the initial outbreak of COVID-19  whereby its production workers were required to undergo a process to screen for symptoms of the disease prior to the start of each shift, the lawsuit relays. Per the case, the employees had to arrive for work early in order to give themselves enough time to wait in line to undergo the examinations given they would be subject to discipline if they did not get to their workstations in time for their production duties to start. According to the case, the time employees spent waiting in line and going through the screening process before clocking in went uncompensated.

The lawsuit alleges Hatfield was obligated under Pennsylvania law to pay its employees for the time between when they arrived on the company’s premises to undergo the COVID-19 screening process and when they clocked in for work. Moreover, given that the employees typically put in more than 40 hours per week, this COVID-19 screening time should have been paid at their time-and-a-half overtime rates, the case claims.

The suit looks to represent Pennsylvania production workers who, during any week within the last three years, were employed by Hatfield or a related entity at a Pennsylvania facility and paid an hourly wage.

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