Workers are suing Minnesota-based Hormel Foods, alleging the food giant does not allow employees to take paid time off if they get sick.

The class action lawsuit alleges Hormel violated the Minnesota Earned Safe and Sick Time law for UFCW Local 663 members. The union represents more than 1,600 meatpacking workers at Hormel's Austin, Minnesota, plant.

The lawsuit claims workers had to use vacation days instead of sick days if they wanted to get paid for the time off. Hormel is accused of refusing to provide employees with earned sick and safe time (ESST) benefit accruals for their work between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025, and denying the workers' statutory right to carry over their accrued, unused ESST benefits into the 2025 calendar year. The lawsuit also alleges Hormel failed to give "all or most" employees any of the ESST benefits they earned in January and February this year,

"Workers, advocates, and legislators fought hard to make Earned Sick and Safe Time law. Now, ESST is a statewide standard," said UFCW Local 663 President Rena Wong. "UFCW 663 members know what it means to fight for what we deserve and win. After all, workers at Hormel set the standard for wages in the meatpacking industry."  

Hormel declined to comment.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind since the law passed in 2023, according to the Minnesota Senate DFL. Under the law, anyone is eligible for the sick and safe time if they work 80 hours a year and don't qualify as an independent contractor.

The policy approved by the DFL-led legislature allows people to use the time for treating mental or physical illness, going to medical appointments, caring for a family member who's ill, and even due to inclement weather that may close children's school and keep them home. It also covers absences related to domestic abuse or sexual assault.

"As chief author of the 2023 Earned Sick and Safe Time law, I am proud to stand with the workers of UFCW Local 663 as they demand the rights they are due," Sen. Sandra Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, said. "Hormel must follow Minnesota law and stop disrespecting its workers. I look forward to UFCW Local 663's day in court."

There's a long history of labor activism at the Hormel plant in Austin. In the mid-1980s, about 1,500 workers went on strike for 13 months in one of the longest strikes in state history. The employees cited a wage freeze, dangerous working conditions and a wage cut as the reason for the strike.