New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, on Monday accused UPS of stealing wages from thousands of seasonal workers in the state.
UPS unlawfully withheld millions of dollars of these workers’ wages by not paying minimum wage, overtime or other compensation required under state and federal law, according to a lawsuit Ms. James filed in State Supreme Court. It asks the court to order UPS to pay restitution to the workers who were affected.
In an emailed statement, UPS denied it had intentionally underpaid employees. “We offer industry-leading pay and benefits to our more than 26,000 employees in New York, and we remain committed to following all applicable laws,” the statement said.
UPS, which is based in Atlanta, shipped an average of 22.4 million packages and documents in 2024.
During the busy holiday season, from October to January, UPS hires thousands of temporary workers in at least 55 facilities in New York, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit focused on two types of seasonal workers who help deliver packages: driver helpers, who ride in UPS trucks and assist drivers with package delivery, and seasonal support drivers, who deliver packages from their personal vehicles.
The attorney general’s investigation found that workers have worked off-the-clock at various times, including before the beginning of their shift, after the end of their shift and during unpaid meal breaks.
The lawsuit broke down how these pay discrepancies play out.
For example, driver helpers often meet a driver on their route, and the driver clocks them in at pickup. But drivers “frequently” do not arrive at the meeting point at the helper’s scheduled start time, and that wait time is unpaid, the lawsuit said. Driver helpers who go to a UPS facility first are sometimes not able to clock in until they are assigned a driver, the driver leaves the facility or they are sent to meet a driver along their delivery route.
Seasonal support drivers who meet with a driver on the driver’s route can encounter similar delays before they are allowed to clock in. If they are sent to a UPS facility, they may not get to clock in until they are given a delivery route, packages become available or they are sent to meet a driver on their route.
The lawsuit also said that timekeeping practices at UPS introduced and compounded errors that under-recorded compensable time. The company does not require a specific system to keep track of seasonal workers’ time, and some of the methods used include a mobile app and paper timekeeping.
“How could we possibly interpret these actions other than UPS systematically forcing workers to miss hours?” Ms. James said at a news conference on Monday. “This blatant wage theft allowed UPS to save millions of dollars while seasonal workers struggled to support their families.”
She said she was “confident” other states would join the lawsuit as her office prepared to go to trial.
At the news conference, Josh Pomeranz, the director of operations for Teamsters Local 804, said these practices were uncovered after UPS drivers alerted their union. “When our drivers saw that their seasonal helpers were not getting punched in at time or were doing work off the clock,” he said, “they reported it to us and said, ‘That’s not right.’”
Amanda Holpuch covers breaking news and other topics.
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