UPS Sued Over Allowable Deduction From Overtime Wages
UPS is the worlds largest parcel delivery service and its fleet are involved in an estimated average of over two fatalities a day in the United States. In a recent two-year period, United Parcel Service vehicles were involved in over 800 accident incidents in the United States resulting in serious injuries to over 2 million people. Victims over the past years have included bicyclists, pedestrians, motorists of mobility scooters, and occupants of large trucks.
Many times a UPS vehicle will be involved in a traffic accident, or a driver may make a judgment error that causes an accident. For any of these situations, an injured party may file a UPS Vehicle Accident Injury lawsuit against the carrier responsible for the accident. If you are a victim of such an accident, please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer immediately.
United Parcel Service Lawsuit
UPS has been involved in numerous legal actions and settlements. A recent case in point involves a Florida man who was crushed under a large truck while shopping at a store. Another lawsuit resulted in a UPS vehicle being stolen in Texas. There is also a class-action lawsuit that was brought against UPS by a Tampa delivery driver that suffered a back injury while working for the company. As part of a payment dispute, the driver lost her job and filed a lawsuit against UPS, which is in turn facing a lawsuit brought against it by the delivery driver’s union.
The ultimate arbiter in a UPS delivery dispute is the Supreme Court.
Recently, the Supreme Court issued an opinion that could have broad implications for UPS. The opinion involved a case that involved the delivery of a DHL box containing boxed laptops to a residence. In the case, the delivery driver was ordered to return the box to the company’s warehouse rather than allow the delivery to proceed. The company argued that the delivery of goods should be deemed discretionary as a matter of choice, and the Supreme Court agreed with the result.
UPS may have a valid argument that it can be held liable for damages incurred due to the conduct of third parties.
The delivery driver was not an employee of UPS and was not entitled to bring the action against UPS as an employer under federal law. Federal courts have previously held that delivery companies are not liable for acts of third parties. In fact, a delivery company may be held liable for aiding and abetting a third party’s wrongdoing, but only to the extent that the carrier or its agents promoted the wrongful act (such as theft of merchandise).
The latest case involves a UPS employee who was injured while taking leave from his job.
The employee brought a class action lawsuit claiming that UPS discriminated against him by requiring him to take additional safety training when he was off the job. He claimed that he was subject to increased overtime wages because he was required to take the additional training.
The trial court denied the class action lawsuit claiming that UPS had a legitimate reason to require the safety training and did not violate any federal or state law. The US District Court for the Southern District of New York affirmed the denial of the class action lawsuit claiming that although UPS was acting within the course and scope of its employment, it did not have a discretionary right to refuse the request of the employee to take the safety training.
UPS was not the only defendant in this case.
The brokerage company also faced a class action lawsuit claiming that they were improperly collecting and charging their clients for services that were performed by other employees of the company. The trial court denied both class action lawsuits. Hopefully UPS will receive some benefits from these ridiculous brokerage charges cases as more states are becoming hostile to these class action lawsuits.