New York Attorney General Letitia James sued UPS on Monday, accusing the shipping giant of cheating seasonal workers out of millions of dollars in pay during the holiday season by forcing them to work off the clock.
The civil lawsuit alleges that UPS violated federal and state labor laws by requiring thousands of temporary seasonal workers to perform unpaid work, failing to record all work hours and manipulating timekeeping systems to reduce recorded pay hours.
“My office is filing a lawsuit against UPS, the largest package delivery company in the world, for engaging in years of systematic wage theft from its seasonal workers,” James said at a news conference Monday. “These are the workers who carry us through the holidays, who help keep our economy moving.”
James’s office said an investigation opened in 2023 found these violations were not isolated events but “rather repeated and persistent practices embedded across its New York operations” affecting dozens of UPS facilities.
A UPS spokesperson said in a statement that “we are aware of the news from the New York Attorney’s General Office and, as a matter of policy, do not comment on ongoing litigation.”
“UPS takes all accusations of wrongdoing seriously and is thoroughly investigating the matter,” the spokesperson added.
UPS has slashed tens of thousands of U.S. delivery and warehouse jobs this year to cut costs in an effort to keep investors happy, and has taken a hit from tariffs that have sharply curbed shipment volume, especially from China. The company employed roughly half a million workers at the start of 2025, making it one of the country’s largest private employers.
The lawsuit stems from an investigation that found systemic labor violations affecting seasonal UPS workers, according to the attorney general’s office. The company hires temporary workers by the thousands each year between October and January, its peak season. Seasonal hires assist UPS drivers with deliveries and use their personal cars to help the company deliver packages, the attorney general’s office said.
The investigation found that UPS routinely forced workers to record a delay to their start time in the timekeeping software, until workers had scanned or delivered their first package. This delayed start time would be recorded even when workers had already been waiting at warehouses or roadside meetup points for hours, the investigation found.
UPS workers also said the company sometimes sent them home without pay after they had waited for hours after arriving at worksites. And workers were not paid for travel between assignments, watching training videos and returning undelivered packages, the investigation found.
The investigation was a response to a tip from Teamsters Local 804, a union that represents UPS employees in the New York City area, about widespread wage theft impacting the company’s seasonal workers.
Workers often performed other kinds of unpaid tasks, such as preparing and loading packages and vehicles, the investigation found. Many seasonal employees worked for more than 40 hours a week but were not paid legally mandated overtime, or they were forced to clock out before completing assignments and worked through legally mandated meal breaks without pay, the attorney general’s office found.
James has asked the court to order restitution for workers who were illegally underpaid and to force UPS to adopt “sweeping reforms that end off-the-clock work and other unlawful practices.”
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