Memphis, Tennesse (PRWEB) September 27, 2011
A U.S. District Court ruled that workers at breakfast food giant Kellogg Co. may proceed with their claims alleging they were not paid for time spent walking between changing rooms and time clocks and ordered that notice of the lawsuit should be given to workers at a number of Kellogg Co. plants. Defendant Kellogg Co. moved for summary judgment on the named Plaintiff’s claims, seeking a ruling that such time was “de minimus,” or too brief to matter. Kellogg Co. also sought an order barring the case from proceeding as a collective action. District Judge Jon Phipps McCalla denied Kellogg Co.’s motion for summary judgment, and granted the Plaintiffs’ motion to conditionally certify the case as a collective action.
The Plaintiffs read this order as a significant upset for Kellogg Co., which previously won the dismissal of the worker’s claims for uncompensated time spent donning and doffing their work clothes and evaded the Plaintiffs’ previous motion for conditional certification. The donning and doffing issue went up to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the dismissal of those claims but remanded the issue of walking time to the District Court.
According to Plaintiff’s attorney Rachhana Srey, “There is no excuse for a company not to pay its workers for all their time on the job. Kellogg may not value all the time its workers spend on the job in its facilities, but its workers certainly do. We are glad the Court recognized that our clients’ claims are legitimate.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Donald H. Nichols, Paul J. Lukas, and Rachhana T. Srey of Nichols Kaster, PLLP and Donald A. Donati and William B. Ryan of Donati Law Firm, LLP. The case is Franklin v. Kellogg Company, Court File No. 2:08-cv-02268, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
Additional information about the cases is located at http://www.nka.com or may be obtained by calling Nichols Kaster, PLLP toll free at (877) 344-4628.
