A federal appeals court panel reinstated allegations by Tyson Foods Inc. workers that the company negligently exposed them to Covid-19, finding the meatpacking giant never acted under government control to keep its factories open.

The central question at issue was whether former President Donald Trump’s April 2020 executive order requiring meatpacking plants to remain open during the pandemic to prevent food shortages warrants hearing the case in federal court instead of state court.

Tyson invoked Trump’s order and said it preempts the workers’ claims. A district court accepted that argument when it dismissed the case in June 2021 and declined to remand it to state court.

But the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated that ruling in an unpublished, per curiam decision Monday and said federal officer removal jurisdiction is lacking...