Agri Stats changes labour data reports

 

 

Agri Stats has agreed to change its reporting of labour rates in the poultry-processing industry in a settlement of a sweeping lawsuit that saw the packers pay about $400 million.

The proposed class action settlement, filed Friday in federal court in Baltimore, requires judicial approval. 

While Indiana-based Agri Stats will not contribute to the $400 million settlement fund previously paid by Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, and Sanderson Farms, the company has agreed to change its reporting practices in ways plaintiffs say will protect poultry workers.

Filed in 2019, the lawsuit alleged that poultry processors used Agri Stats’ benchmarking reports to exchange confidential wage data across plants, hatcheries, and feed mills, resulting in artificially low compensation. 

Agri Stats and the poultry companies denied any wrongdoing.