AUSTIN, Minn. — The union representing Hormel workers in Austin, Minnesota has filed a class action lawsuit alleging the meat packing company violated the state’s earned sick and safe time law the first year it was in effect.

UFCW Local 663, the Hormel workers’ union representing about 1,600 employees at the Austin Hormel plant, announced the suit Wednesday, July 30, 2025.

Minnesota’s sick and safe time law, passed in May 2023, requires employers to provide employees one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked for up to 48 per year of paid leave time for a full-time worker. Employees can use the leave time for illness, care for a sick loved one, seek housing and safety in domestic abuse situations or for weather-related hazards.

The suit alleges Hormel forced employees to use their contractual vacation benefits in order to avoid losing pay during those absences when the law went into effect in 2024.

The union challenged Hormel’s policy in April 2024, saying it violated the workers’ collective bargaining agreement by diminishing their vacation benefits. In February 2025, a labor arbitrator ruled the company could not use paid vacation to comply with the leave law.

Beginning March 1, 2025, Hormel began providing an hour of leave for every 30 hours worked. However, the suit alleges Hormel did not provide employees with earned sick and safe time or restore benefit accruals retroactively from January 1, 2024 through March 1, 2025.

Four employees named plaintiffs in the lawsuit — Daniel Lenway, Dalia Cruz Ayala, Juan Cruz Gastelum, and Jason Novak — would all have earned the law’s maximum 48 hours of sick and safe leave in 2024, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit is asking for damages based on the amount of earned sick and safe time benefits earned by Hormel employees “that could have been used and/or could have been carried over from January 1, 2024 to March 1, 2025.”

DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, St. Paul, attended the public announcement of the lawsuit in Austin. Murphy said the law was designed to keep workers and the public safe by allowing people who are sick to stay home.

“I want workers who work in our food safety industry to come to work healthy to do their jobs,” Murphy said, calling the right to call in sick a “basic human right.”

Dan Lenway, Hormel employee of nearly 30 years and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the earned sick and safe time law has finally given Hormel employees a way to be paid when they’re sick.

“It gives us the time to care for ourselves and our families when we need it the most,” said Dan Lenway, Hormel employee and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. “It means we don’t have to risk our jobs or our wages just to take care of our health or our families.”

Louris Marshall O’Brien, P.A. is representing the UFCW 663 in the suit.

Hormel said in a statement the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.