Data company Agri Stats settles meat workers’ wage-fixing lawsuit

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Agricultural data company Agri Stats has agreed to settle a federal antitrust class action alleging it conspired with major red meat processors to suppress U.S. worker wages at plants across the country.

Indiana-based Agri Stats will not pay into a settlement fund but agreed to cooperate with the plaintiffs and said it would change how it reports some labor-related data in the future. The proposed settlement was filed on Thursday in the federal district court in Colorado and requires a judge’s approval.

The case, brought on behalf of tens of thousands of red meat processing workers at 140 plants, alleges a years-long conspiracy among leading processors to keep wages low. The workers claimed the processors shared confidential compensation data with Agri Stats, violating antitrust law.

The workers have won more than $200 million in settlements from Tyson TSN.N, JBS, Cargill and other processors since 2022.

Agri Stats did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lead attorneys for the workers declined to comment.

Agri Stats denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement. It said resolving the claims would avoid further expense, disruption and burden of litigation.

The company is not currently issuing pork reports and says it has no plans to restart them, court records show.

Other defendants previously said they will cooperate with the plaintiffs as part of their settlements — producing documents and providing witnesses for questioning — as the case proceeds against sole remaining defendant Smithfield SFD.O.

Smithfield declined to comment .

Agri Stats in October separately agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit in federal court in Maryland alleging it conspired with major poultry processors to keep worker wages artificially lower.

In another pending civil lawsuit, Agri Stats is fighting related allegations brought by the U.S. Justice Department in 2023. A lawyer for Agri Stats in that case said in a prior statement that the company “provides vital benchmarking services that help keep production costs and prices low for consumers.”

The case is Ron Brown et al. v JBS USA Food Company et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, No. 1:22-cv-02946-PAB-STV.

For plaintiffs: Shana Scarlett of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro; Brent Johnson of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll; and George Farah of Handley Farah & Anderson

For Agri Stats: Justin Bernick, Steven Barley and William Monts III of Hogan Lovells

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