Contractors Working as Amazon Delivery Drivers Sue over Denied Breaks and Overtime

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Amazon uses contractors to deliver packages to homes and even finances entrepreneurs to start delivering their goods. Now Amazon and its contractor NEA Delivery Services are in the cross-hairs of a potential federal class action lawsuit alleging that the online retail giant knew that NEA was understaffed but required the same amount of packages to be delivered on time. Thus employees had to work without meal breaks, rest periods and were denied overtime compensation. The lawsuit may have merit as the California Supreme Court just recently ruled that ride-share drivers and other freelancers must be presumed to be employees.

She claims the firms had full control over drivers' workdays and supplied their trucks. Drivers had to start and finish each shift at an Amazon warehouse, the suit said. The drivers were paid a day rate that didn't account for overtime, and Champion for "many" weeks worked more than eight hours a day and 40 hours a week with no extra pay, she alleged. Drivers "regularly" worked 10-hour days without meal breaks, the suit claimed.
 
Someone doesn't understand the difference between salary and hourly pay. Also, when you accept a salary, you accept the terms that go with it, and that rate of pay should account for weeks that you in excess of 40 hours. But if a lawyer can make a buck off a class action that has no standing they'll take the chance of an out of court settlement.
 
There are so many Youtube/Twitch videos about this from people, documenting this in real time, it should be an interesting case.
 
You sign up for a block of time... like 2-4 hours. Then Amazon gives you a set of packages that are supposed to be able to be delivered within that period of time. The problem is, it is impossible to deliver, let alone just drive to all the locations they are allocating. If you fail to deliver everything you get punished. There is literally video of Amazon management admitting to this, so the case is pretty much open and closed. Amazon will most likely try to settle for pennies and promise to change.
 
Dwayne said:
Someone doesn't understand the difference between salary and hourly pay. Also, when you accept a salary, you accept the terms that go with it, and that rate of pay should account for weeks that you in excess of 40 hours. But if a lawyer can make a buck off a class action that has no standing they'll take the chance of an out of court settlement.
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Salary vs Hourly isn't a binary statement though. In some cases you must pay overtime to salary (fixed) employees.
 
Trepidati0n said:
Salary vs Hourly isn't a binary statement though. In some cases you must pay overtime to salary (fixed) employees.
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IT, truck drivers, these normally are salary positions that are exempt from any type of overtime pay when they are salary.

So in this case, in most areas, as long as they were classified as exempt salary then they would not qualify for overtime pay no matter how many hours they work.
 
Dwayne said:
Someone doesn't understand the difference between salary and hourly pay. Also, when you accept a salary, you accept the terms that go with it, and that rate of pay should account for weeks that you in excess of 40 hours. But if a lawyer can make a buck off a class action that has no standing they'll take the chance of an out of court settlement.
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Speaking as a salaried employee: While we give up a ton of rights, I'm pretty sure lunch breaks aren't one of them. There's also Federal regulations out there for public safety that are supposed to limit the amount of time people are driving. And that's not even getting into the whole contractor discussion.
 
cageymaru said:
The lawsuit may have merit as the California Supreme Court just recently ruled that ride-share drivers and other freelancers must be presumed to be employees.
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Note quite; what California ruled was that in the case of Uber/Lyft, since the entire point of the company is to transport individuals between two points, anyone who performs that task must be considered an employee. Or in other words: Companies can not outsource core tasks to independent contractors to avoid labor laws. Other non-core tasks can still be outsourced to contractors as per normal.
 
Dwayne said:
Someone doesn't understand the difference between salary and hourly pay. Also, when you accept a salary, you accept the terms that go with it, and that rate of pay should account for weeks that you in excess of 40 hours. But if a lawyer can make a buck off a class action that has no standing they'll take the chance of an out of court settlement.
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You don't understand California law. Certain salary positions have be be paid overtime. I am one of them.

Learn the state laws before you come out swinging. People that I know who do this even say Amazon is assholes at times. They said it is timed. You have to deliver certain amounts of packages and I doesn't matter what the conditions are lol. If you are even 5 mins late outside that window it's an all that tells you you may be fired lol.

This isn't about a quick buck. Amazon needs to understand people aren't robots.
 
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NEA is the one who is at fault, as they are the actual company/contractor who signed the agreement with Amazon, and hires/pays the drivers (aka they are the driver's employers). Which means this does not fall on Amazon, If NEA can't keep up their side of the contract with Amazon, and they chose not to hire more drivers, not pay over time, and force their drivers to not take breaks, that is on NEA, not Amazon.

As for the overtime part, for truck drivers, their is a "small vehicle Exception" that requires them to pay overtime, and that is if the vehicle weights less than 10,000 pounds (5 tons) loaded or UNLOADED. Most trucks of this size (the brown ups delivery trucks) weight 5 tons when loaded on average, which means they weight less than that UNLOADED, requiring overtime to be paid.


https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs19.htm

Now, if the drivers are considered sub contractors, and not employees, that is another story, and we will have to see how it plays out, but Amazon is still not at fault.
 
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NKD said:
You don't understand California law. Certain salary positions have be be paid overtime. I am one of them.

Learn the state laws before you come out swinging. People that I know who do this even say Amazon is assholes at times. They said it is timed. You have to deliver certain amounts of packages and I doesn't matter what the conditions are lol. If you are even 5 mins late outside that window it's an all that tells you you may be fired lol.

This isn't about a quick buck. Amazon needs to understand people aren't robots.
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https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_OvertimeExemptions.htm

I can google. A lot of people make claims and then forget they signed employment agreements, or don't look up the stuff themselves. I'm no lawyer, nor an expert on California law, but I expect that both companies employ said experts.
 
Yeeeaaa, no.
If a persons check is signed by someone from NEA, this is entirely on their shoulders for not employing the appropriate workforce to meet the demands of the contract they worked out with Amazon.

That's not to say some shady lawyer won't find some legal loophole to name Amazon in a suit, but that's a different matter.

NEA is at fault for trying to cut costs, make more profit or even get into the black.
They probably low-balled a rate for Amazon to GET the contract, saying "yea yea we can do it for %% less than the next company" and now, cannot.

Sucks to be them.
And their employee's.
 
Dwayne said:
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_OvertimeExemptions.htm

I can google. A lot of people make claims and then forget they signed employment agreements, or don't look up the stuff themselves. I'm no lawyer, nor an expert on California law, but I expect that both companies employ said experts.
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It's a very complicated law. I am on salary but I am still paid via hourly. It's weird. But when move to level 2 in the company and get another 10-15kk or so salary bump I don't get overtime. It really has to do with salary itself may be. But I am required to input overtime and take brakes. I input overtime but I don't really care for brakes as there is a lot of freedom in my job.

I don't punch in or out. Its like manually going in and inputting overtime.
 
I have said many times that Amazon is as bad or even worse than Walmart in how they treat employees (contracted).
 
Exavior said:
IT, truck drivers, these normally are salary positions that are exempt from any type of overtime pay when they are salary.

So in this case, in most areas, as long as they were classified as exempt salary then they would not qualify for overtime pay no matter how many hours they work.
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To an extent. If the employer is making unreasonable demands upon those hours or engages in undo punishment/recourse based upon conditions outside of the employees control...they are fucked. Again, the rules do not give carte-blanche to amazon in regards to employees. Simply put..if it smells like bullshit from Amazon, then the judge will let is proceed in civil court...and in cases of ass-hat actions by Amazon it might start get DA's involved.

Again..laws are never absolute...they are just strongly worded guidelines with the power of a government behind them.
 
To be straightforward, this is a deliberate violation of the intent of our labor laws.

--

There are two good ways to increase your bottom line: Increase sales or cut costs. Both have to be explored. Most companies have a high labor cost, so eventually you're going to look at the efficiency of your manpower, and that's fine. What isn't fine is subverting the intention of our labor laws in order to cut costs, and there is a long and nasty history of corporations skirting human welfare laws in favor of profits.

Lets do a simplified outline of the protections our labor laws are supposed to grant the worker:

1. A safe work environment
2. 40 hours per week maximum
3. Paid for overtime
4. Reasonable vacation and sick leave
5. Health Insurance

These are the things our laws are supposed to grant the average worker. They don't even include other mundane considerations such as: 6. A living wage

There are exceptions to all of these rules - the triangle between the employer, the employee, and the task to be accomplished isn't always perfect, so the laws have to be flexible to accommodate each situation. And that's fine. But if an employer has a manageable task and an available workforce to accomplish it, but chooses to use the flexibility of labor laws in order to bypass those protections for his own benefit, that is a violation of the intent of our labor laws.

--

Is it only corporations that do this? No. My father was a contract mailman. Up until the late 1970's all mailmen in my town worked for the Post Office, but during the Ford years some consultants were brought in by Congress to look at ways of making the US Postal Service profitable.

One of the things they came up with is contract mailmen. After 1976 people on driving routes were contractors who bid for the right to deliver mail, didn't get hourly wages, didn't get annual or sick leave, paid for their own car, the car's fuel, the car's insurance and the car's maintenance, did not receive health insurance, did not receive any form of retirement, and were exempted from USPS laws that protected mailmen in inclement weather or unusual situations (like dogs.) These contractors drive 6 days a week and average a 49-hour work week.

These contractor routes were only supposed to be for smaller mail routes that didn't need a full-time postal driver. At the time of the switch-over there were 7 driver-based mail routes in my area; 6 became contractor routes. It was a big cost-cutting success, and it's total bullshit. A clerk selling stamps makes more money than a contract driver.
 
I drive a 18-wheeler for a regional LTL freight carrier that is governed by Federal DOT laws, the only break we get during the course of anywhere from a 10-14 hour day is a Federal DOT 30min mandatory lunch break taken before your 8th hour of service. I start at 9am so normally I dont take lunch until around 4pm. Before this law we never got a lunch break or any rest break really, it was eat and run. As far as overtime my company pays overtime after 45 hours, Yellow freight pays after 40 hours, FedX is after 8 hours and R&L carrier does not pay overtime at all.
I tried to research this carrier NEA but couldn't find much about them, I guess what matters for them is are they governed by the state or Federal DOT motor carrier laws. But please whining about being understaffed and overworked?? As I would say to rookies at my company welcome to trucking, suck it up buttercup!! Your always understaffed and overworked, especially if you new. There is a phrase we use in trucking when running behind, its called HAMMER DOWN!!
 
kilroy67 said:
I drive a 18-wheeler for a regional LTL freight carrier that is governed by Federal DOT laws, the only break we get during the course of anywhere from a 10-14 hour day is a Federal DOT 30min mandatory lunch break taken before your 8th hour of service. I start at 9am so normally I dont take lunch until around 4pm. Before this law we never got a lunch break or any rest break really, it was eat and run. As far as overtime my company pays overtime after 45 hours, Yellow freight pays after 40 hours, FedX is after 8 hours and R&L carrier does not pay overtime at all.
I tried to research this carrier NEA but couldn't find much about them, I guess what matters for them is are they governed by the state or Federal DOT motor carrier laws. But please whining about being understaffed and overworked?? As I would say to rookies at my company welcome to trucking, suck it up buttercup!! Your always understaffed and overworked, especially if you new. There is a phrase we use in trucking when running behind, its called HAMMER DOWN!!
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I'm a ups driver and just got home from an 11 hour day. I got my unpaid lunch break in at 6pm after all my business deliveries and pickups were done.

Amazon has had their own delivery guys in my area for a year now. They used to be decent. Not really any good, clearly had like no training. You'd see them driving around with their wife and kids with boxes stacked everywhere delivering packages in dirty clothes.

Now? They have official unmarked white vans and sprinters. Sometimes they are in a bland "uniform" that no one would recognize or associate with Amazon. They are called "prime drivers". They make about 1/4th what I make.

They are insane. They speed the wrong way down one way streets, blow through red lights and stop signs, make illegal u-turns, etc etc. Amazon don't care cause Amazon don't pay if they crash. They are a contractor, somehow, who shows up to the Amazon warehouse every day and ends their day back at the Amazon warehouse.

And they are terrible delivery guys. I'll roll up to an apartment complex to fill up my dolly and deliver 15 boxes figure it will take me about 25 minutes. At the front door, outside of the building, off to the side there will be a pile of Amazon deliveries. In a bad neighborhood, at an expensive secured apartment complex. By the time I leave the building those packages are all gone. And I'll tell you what the owners of those things did not get them.

I've seen them drive up speeding like crazy, grab three boxes at a business complex, and throw them out of their car into the parking lot and leave.

My friends used to ask me if I was worried about Amazon taking my job basically. Yeah, no. They are terrible and should be sued for their fake contract workers. Not only that most of my deliveries are business to business and they pay extra knowing we will get them their work and livelihood on time.
 
Snowdensjacket said:
I'm a ups driver and just got home from an 11 hour day. I got my unpaid lunch break in at 6pm after all my business deliveries and pickups were done.

Amazon has had their own delivery guys in my area for a year now. They used to be decent. Not really any good, clearly had like no training. You'd see them driving around with their wife and kids with boxes stacked everywhere delivering packages in dirty clothes.

Now? They have official unmarked white vans and sprinters. Sometimes they are in a bland "uniform" that no one would recognize or associate with Amazon. They are called "prime drivers". They make about 1/4th what I make.

They are insane. They speed the wrong way down one way streets, blow through red lights and stop signs, make illegal u-turns, etc etc. Amazon don't care cause Amazon don't pay if they crash. They are a contractor, somehow, who shows up to the Amazon warehouse every day and ends their day back at the Amazon warehouse.

And they are terrible delivery guys. I'll roll up to an apartment complex to fill up my dolly and deliver 15 boxes figure it will take me about 25 minutes. At the front door, outside of the building, off to the side there will be a pile of Amazon deliveries. In a bad neighborhood, at an expensive secured apartment complex. By the time I leave the building those packages are all gone. And I'll tell you what the owners of those things did not get them.

I've seen them drive up speeding like crazy, grab three boxes at a business complex, and throw them out of their car into the parking lot and leave.

My friends used to ask me if I was worried about Amazon taking my job basically. Yeah, no. They are terrible and should be sued for their fake contract workers. Not only that most of my deliveries are business to business and they pay extra knowing we will get them their work and livelihood on time.
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They get what they pay for, Home Depot does the same thing. They use bottom of the barrel drivers, unmarked trucks that are usually not DOT compliant and if they are it just by a hair, and usually no uniforms. Some can barely speak English if at all, and have no clue about customer service. I work for A. Duie Pyle Trucking, we also have a new home delivery service with trucks the size of the UPS brownies. But we adhere to DOT regulations, our equipment is pretty good and our drivers trained and professional for the most part, just like UPS LTL and the UPS Parcel service. Amazon used to use ABF amd XPO, not sure if they still do. But hey, use a fly by night 3rd world delivery company, you deserve what you get.
 
our ideas of what constitutes a fair wage or hourly rate has been skewed by dodgy contracts , concepts of zero rating, deliberate characterization of employment by Billionaires owners for the past 2 decades, not to mention the elimination of trade unions or any sort of joint-labor-lobbying.

which is why you have people defending mega corps like Amazon , Uber and the such for their exploitative for-their-profits labor schemes.

and no, it doesn't actually translate to any significant discount to end-customers

and the leaders whom we look up for regulation and protection of rights = lllllooonggggg bought out
 
Dwayne said:
Someone doesn't understand the difference between salary and hourly pay. Also, when you accept a salary, you accept the terms that go with it, and that rate of pay should account for weeks that you in excess of 40 hours. But if a lawyer can make a buck off a class action that has no standing they'll take the chance of an out of court settlement.
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Someone doesnt understand the difference between a contractor and an employee.

Even salaried employees are owed compensation - either ot pay or comp time for working overtime and even salaried employees are protected by law to have breaks and lunches.
 
Exavior said:
IT, truck drivers, these normally are salary positions that are exempt from any type of overtime pay when they are salary.

So in this case, in most areas, as long as they were classified as exempt salary then they would not qualify for overtime pay no matter how many hours they work.
Click to expand...

You may wish to start here - https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17g_salary.htm - there is much more to it then just this however.

Exempt in this context means exempt from overtime.
 
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