On June 8, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Tyson Foods’ petition for review of the Eighth Circuit’s decision affirming the district court’s class and collective certification of a donning and doffing case under what Tyson Foods has described as “seriously flawed procedures.” While it does not appear that the Supreme Court’s review will deal directly with the standards for donning and doffing – i.e., the practice of employees putting on and taking off their uniforms and/or personal protective equipment pre- and post-shift – the Court appears likely to resolve how cases involving donning and doffing, as well as other wage-hour cases where not all employees in the putative class are impacted by a certain practice, will be scrutinized for purposes of applying class certification standards going forward. More specifically, the Court is expected to clarify what it means to have a class action “trial by formula,” of which the Court first disapproved in 2011 in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes.
