A lawsuit against a faith-based organization and Simmons Foods brought by three drug court participants who worked for free in chicken processing plants can move forward, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Terence Kern of Oklahoma wrote earlier this month that the allegations brought forth by the plaintiffs of racketeering, labor law violations and human trafficking were plausible.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in October 2017, claims that Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery and Simmons conspired to profit from a cheap labor pool of drug-court participants who agreed to enroll in the rehabilitation program for at least a year in lieu of jail time, as a condition of probation.

However, when the participants arrived at the dorms in Jay, Okla., they said they did not find rehabilitation services, but a work camp that required them to toil in chicken factories for more than 40 hours a week on the slaughter and evisceration lines, court documents show. They were not paid for their work at Simmons, but the program did provide them with "daily bologna sandwiches and a bunk-bed in a cramped, unsanitary dorm room," the men claim.

After years of court filings on the matter from all parties, Kern ruled that a majority of the claims in the case should move forward and rejected Simmons' motion to dismiss.

Simmons Foods, based in Siloam Springs, is one of the largest privately owned U.S. chicken and pet food companies. Its headquarters are about a 45-minute drive from Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery's dorms in Jay. The faith-based nonprofit was founded by Janet Wilkerson, a former executive at Peterson Farms, a chicken processing company acquired by Simmons in 2008.

One of the questions in the case has been whether the plaintiffs should be classified as employees. While they worked at the plants and suffered injuries on the job, their pay went to Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery in the form of donations, plaintiffs allege, resulting in discounted labor for Simmons and profits for the program. They also said the work was done under "constant threat of incarceration" from both parties if they deemed the work unsatisfactory or if the plaintiffs could not work because of injury.

Despite arguments that the plaintiffs were not employees of Simmons or Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery, Kern said their activity was similar enough.

In his filing Sept. 11, Kern said the plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that "Simmons purchased their labor at a discounted rate or with a donation to CAAIR" and by classifying them as "volunteers" effectively lowered Simmons' costs and undermined the Fair Labor Standards Act's goal of preventing unfair competition.

"While it is unclear exactly how long CAAIR and Simmons have been associated, plaintiffs have further alleged that their arrangement lasted for at least several months, which appears to be enough time for both to pursue the enterprise's purpose -- using unpaid labor purchased at below-market costs to increase both parties' profits," Kern said in the filing.

After the initial lawsuit in the Northern District Court of Oklahoma, plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint in December 2017, bringing forth federal and state wage claims and allegations of racketeering and human trafficking. A month later Christian Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery filed a line-by-line answer to the complaint, while Simmons chose not to respond.

On Wednesday, weeks after the judge's order, attorneys with Simmons Foods filed their response, denying most of the claims.

Business on 09/27/2019