Amazon, Haskins Hit with Ex-Delivery Driver’s Lawsuit Over Alleged Unpaid Wages, Treatment of Military Service Members

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Amazon Logistics, Inc. and contractor Haskins Prime Logistics, LLC face a proposed collective action wherein a former employee claims he and other delivery associates were not paid for every hour worked and deprived of proper overtime wages.

The 20-page lawsuit additionally alleges the defendants have failed to reserve jobs for delivery associates on military leave, in apparent violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

Amazon, the case explains, utilizes delivery service providers such as Haskins to transport goods from its warehouses to customers’ doors “as quickly as possible” and, according to the lawsuit, to “shield itself from liability.” Per the case, delivery associates’ job duties are “centrally controlled and directed” by both Amazon and Haskins.

Delivery associates, the lawsuit says, are regularly scheduled to work five days per week, eight hours per day yet often put in as many as 10 hours per day in order to complete their assigned work and all work-related activities. The suit relays that drivers’ shifts begin when they pick up their assigned vehicle at an Amazon or offsite facility, after which they pick up their assigned route, a gas card, and packages. According to the case, the defendants automatically deduct 30-minute meal breaks from delivery associates’ hours each day regardless of whether they clock out for a break. Moreover, even after workers finish delivering their packages, they are sometimes required to “rescue” other delivery associates by meeting them in the field to help deliver their packages. At the end of each shift, during which workers deliver an average of 200 packages, delivery associates unload their vehicles and check in with supervisors regarding their shifts, the lawsuit relays.

The complaint claims that as a result of the aforementioned practices, Amazon and Haskins have failed to pay delivery drivers for every hour worked, including for overtime hours at the proper time-and-a-half rate. Per the suit, although Amazon is capable of tracking packages “to the second,” the retail giant has failed to make, keep and preserve sufficient records of drivers’ hours to properly pay them in accordance with federal and state law, including by providing proper overtime wages.

The plaintiff, who worked for the defendants as a delivery associate between March 2020 and May 2021, goes on to allege that the companies violated USERRA by denying him employment based on his military status. The suit says the defendants were aware at the time of the plaintiff’s employment of his membership in the United States Army National Guard Reserve and their responsibilities under USERRA. Per the case, although the plaintiff provided proper notice before leaving for a three-week training program with the military and made a timely application for work upon his release, the defendants failed to return the plaintiff to his job and other rights and benefits the man had prior to leaving for training.

“Specifically, Amazon has removed him from the ADP system as out on military leave pursuant to its policy to do so, thus preventing Plaintiff from working the shifts he arrived to work and earn money,” the complaint reads.

The plaintiff claims as many as 100 individuals have been denied the benefits of employment due to Amazon’s policy of removing military service members from the ADP payroll system.

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