Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—NYAG sues UPS for wage and hour violations on behalf of seasonal workers, (Dec 16, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

“Instead of compensating these workers fairly for their labor, UPS has played the Grinch.”

Yesterday, the New York Attorney General’s office announced that it had filed a lawsuit in state court against the United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) alleging a variety of wage and hour violations by the employer against its seasonal delivery workers across the state.

Each year between October and January, UPS hires thousands of temporary workers at more than 50 facilities in the state, including driver helpers, who assist full-time drivers with deliveries, and seasonal support drivers, who use personal vehicles to help the company meet demand.

Union reports concerns. In 2023, the NYAG’s office opened an investigation after Teamsters Local 804 voiced concerns about widespread nonpayment issues affecting those workers and OAG determined that UPS’s violations were repeated and persistent practices embedded across its New York operations, rather than isolated errors.

“We at Teamsters local 804 deeply appreciate the work Attorney General Letitia James and her office have done to hold corporations like UPS accountable,” said Vincent Perrone, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 804. “UPS thought they could exploit seasonal workers by not paying them for all time worked.”

Not paid for waiting, travel, training. According to the investigation, workers often waited for hours, without pay, at facilities and roadside meet-up points, and sometimes were sent home without ever clocking in. During delays, they frequently performed other tasks such as preparing vehicles and loading packages. They also described going unpaid for time spent traveling between assignments, watching required training videos, returning undelivered packages, and handing in equipment. These unpaid hours meant losing critical seasonal income.

Automatic deductions. According to the OAG, the investigation showed that UPS used unlawful timekeeping practices that led to systematic undercounting of hours. At times, clock-ins were delayed until a worker scanned or delivered the first package, even when they had already been working or waiting on-site, in some instances for hours.

Also, UPS automatically deducted 30-minute meal breaks regardless of whether workers took them and edited employees’ timesheets to reduce their paid hours. The OAG also found that UPS calculated pay based on a worker’s scheduled start time or delayed clock-in, whichever was later, which resulted in early work going entirely unpaid.

Many seasonal workers logged more than 40 hours a week during peak periods but were not paid overtime.

“UPS built its holiday business on the backs of workers who were not paid for their time and labor,” said Attorney General James. “UPS’s seasonal employees work brutal hours in the cold to deliver the holiday packages families across the country count on. Instead of compensating these workers fairly for their labor, UPS has played the Grinch.”

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