020355 Sanderson Farms Settles Overtime ClaimMarch 24, 2002Washington - Sanderson Farms Inc., the country's No. 7 chicken producer, agreed to pay $450,000 to 500 of its low-wage workers to settle overtime pay violations charges, the Labor Department said. The back-pay settlement with the Laurel, Mississippi-based firm is the third in the past two years in which poultry producers had been charged with failing to pay overtime to members of chicken-catching crews, the department said. Federal labor law requires employers to pay hourly workers time and a half when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The $450,000 will be paid to chicken catchers at five Sanderson Farms plants in Mississippi and Texas, the department said. The company also consented to a federal injunction that settles the department's suit and bars further violations, it said. Earlier settlements involving chicken-catcher pay were reached with privately held Perdue Farms Inc. and the former Continental Grain Co., now ContiGroup Cos. Inc., also privately held.
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