United Parcel Service (UPS) is facing serious accusations of underpaying thousands of seasonal employees, according to a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the New York State Supreme Court, claims that UPS deliberately forced seasonal workers to work without pay. Some of the key allegations include not paying employees for mandatory training, failing to compensate them for time spent waiting for trucks to be loaded, and not paying for time spent traveling between job sites.
The company is also accused of repeatedly committing fraud by docking workers’ pay for 30-minute breaks, even when they didn’t take them. Additionally, some workers were allegedly forced to continue working after clocking out. James is asking the court to order UPS to pay back millions of dollars in unpaid wages.
“These are the workers who carry us through the holidays, who help keep our economy moving and who have been denied millions of dollars in wages that they rightfully earned,” James said during a press conference where she announced the lawsuit.
She didn’t hold back, calling UPS’s behavior “Grinch-like” in a separate press release. The lawsuit was filed alongside members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents full-time UPS employees. The union had been investigating the wage theft allegations since 2023. Some seasonal workers had to wait for hours for trucks to be loaded, only to be denied pay for that time. These workers, many of whom waited in their own cars, ended up burning gas while waiting to start their shifts.
“They could be waiting out there an hour or two and they won’t get paid till their first stop,” said Juan Acosta, a member of Teamsters Local 804, in an interview with WTEN.
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The Teamsters’ investigation also revealed that UPS isolated its seasonal workers, preventing them from connecting with union representatives. According to Local 804’s operations director, Josh Pomerantz, many of the seasonal workers affected by the alleged wage theft “never met a union official.”
In response to the lawsuit, UPS denied the allegations. Spokesperson Natasha Amadi said, “UPS takes all accusations of wrongdoing seriously and denies the unfounded allegation of intentionally underpaying UPS employees.
”She added that the company offers “industry-leading pay and benefits” to its more than 26,000 employees in New York and remains committed to following all relevant laws.