Ahtna Failed to Pay ICE Detention Officers for Security Screenings, Interrupted Lunch Breaks, Lawsuit Alleges

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Federal contractor Ahtna faces a proposed class and collective action that alleges the detention center operator has failed to pay employees for time spent undergoing security screenings and for work performed during lunch breaks.

The 25-page lawsuit alleges defendants Ahtna Support and Training Services, LLC; Ahtna Technical Services, Inc.; and Ahtna, Inc. owe detention officers unpaid minimum and overtime wages as a result of the individuals’ “substantial pre-shift work.”

According to the case, the defendants operate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in Arizona, Florida, New York and Texas, where they employ detention officers to maintain security, ensure safety and oversee the detainees. The lawsuit relays that upon entering each facility, detention officers are required to undergo security screenings during which they remove shoes, belts, jackets, metal objects and personal items, walk through a metal detector, submit to an additional search if metal is detected and gather their belongings.

Per the case, these security screenings, which are necessary to officers’ principal responsibilities of maintaining safety and security, usually take between 10 and 20 minutes and are uncompensated.

The lawsuit adds that the defendants can easily track how much time detention officers spend undergoing security screenings given they are in possession of surveillance and digital records, with which they can identify when each person enters the facility, and logbooks in which employees write down the time they finish their screening.

The suit goes on to claim that detention officers spend an additional 10 to 15 minutes before each shift waiting in line and gathering and putting on equipment, including duty belts, radios, handcuffs and keys.

Per the case, federal law requires employees to be paid for all periods of time between the worker’s first and last principal activity. The lawsuit argues that detention officers’ pre-shift work is “integral and indispensable” to their principal activities and thus should be compensable by Ahtna.

The case further claims that the defendants automatically deduct 30-minute meal periods from each  detention officer’s hours regardless of whether they take an uninterrupted break. According to the suit, this meal period is “primarily for the benefit of Defendants” given workers are required to remain at the detention center and monitor detainees during their breaks, from which the complaint says they are “regularly interrupted.”

The lawsuit claims the defendants have showed a “reckless disregard” for whether their employees were entitled to be paid for all hours worked.

The case looks to represent current and former ICE detention officers who worked for the defendants at any time beginning three years before the suit was filed and until the present, as well as those who worked for the Ahtna defendants in Texas at any time beginning four years before the lawsuit was filed and until the present.

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