About 15,000 drivers across the United States have filed lawsuits against FedEx, claiming the logistics giant owes them overtime wages as a joint employer. These legal actions, brought in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts federal courts, mark the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute over worker classification and wage rights. The lawsuits follow the decertification of collective actions earlier this year, prompting individual claims to be pursued.
Collective Actions Disbanded, Individual Claims Filed
The five new complaints, one of which spans 3,128 pages due to its nearly 12,000 plaintiffs, assert that FedEx acted as a joint employer alongside intermediary employers. Until recently, these drivers’ claims were part of two collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. However, in April, a federal judge in Boston disbanded one collective action, citing differences in pay practices among the workers that prevented them from proceeding as a group. The two lead plaintiffs of that collective action settled their claims for $20,000 each, plus attorney fees, just last week.
