Allied Universal Security Services Failed to Pay Airport Employees Proper Overtime, Lawsuit Alleges

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Universal Protection Service, LLC (who operates as Allied Universal Security Services) and AlliedBarton Security Services LLC face a proposed class and collective action that alleges the contractors have failed to pay certain employees for off-the-clock work at New York airports.

The 24-page case more specifically claims that Allied Universal Security Services’ tour supervisors, fill-in tour supervisors, operations assistants and construction leads were required to put in significant amounts of off-the-clock work before and after each shift and work through meal breaks without being properly compensated.

According to the suit, the defendants, who contracted with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2013 to provide security guard services at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Newark Liberty International Airport, Stewart International Airport and Teterboro Airport, have violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law by failing to pay workers proper time-and-a-half overtime wages and provide accurate wage statements.

Per the complaint, Allied Universal around March 2016 began to require all supervisors and construction leads to arrive half an hour before their shifts started in order to attend a mandatory 30-minute debrief meeting in which incoming employees were informed of any events that happened during the previous shift. Additionally, the workers were required to retrieve vehicles to be stationed in designated posts, respond to communications from Port Authority personnel, ensure that individuals assigned to the upcoming shift had reported to work, verify work credentials, submit preliminary reports, report any unsafe conditions and ensure equipment was working properly, the lawsuit relays.

The suit claims that workers were also required to put in hours after the end of their shifts to complete and submit accident reports and drive security agents to and from different airport posts and monitor their duties.

The plaintiffs, who worked for the defendants at LaGuardia until Allied Universal’s contract with the Port Authority ended in December 2021, allege that they and other employees were not paid any wages for this off-the-clock work, which the suit contends should have been paid at the individuals’ time-and-a-half overtime rates given they were typically scheduled for at least 40 hours per week.

The lawsuit goes on to state that the defendants in July 2018 informed employees of a policy change whereby the workers would be required to record on timesheets both the time they reported to work and the time their shift started. Per the suit, the memo specified that the defendants were “still only paying employees for the times assigned to their shifts not for the actual time they arrive on the site for work (unless they are late).” The memo emphasized that employees would be paid only for time worked outside of their scheduled shift if it was approved by their supervisor, the case relays.

The complaint further alleges that although the defendants automatically deducted 30 minutes of time from each shift for a meal period, employees were often not permitted to take meal breaks because there was no one to replace them or cover their post.

According to the suit, Allied Universal’s practice of failing to pay employees for off-the-clock work and time spent working during meal breaks caused their wage statements to be inaccurate, which the case says is a violation of the New York Labor Law.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who worked as a tour supervisor, fill-in tour supervisor, operations assistant or construction lead at a New York airport pursuant to the defendants’ contracts with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at any time since August 23, 2015.

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