Amazon Worker Sues Over Unpaid Time Spent On Security Checks
A man from Pennsylvania has filed suit against Internet retail giant Amazon, saying that the company takes unfair advantage of its workers by putting them through lengthy daily security checks. Lead plaintiff Neal Heimbach says that Amazon’s pat downs can last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes and, rather than take place during work time, instead routinely eat into unpaid hours, either before work, after work or on lunch breaks.
Heimbach is now leading a class-action case against Amazon on behalf of other workers who have similarly lost time on behalf of the practice. The lawsuit specifically mentions violations of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act.
Heimbach is a worker at a Breinigsville, PA warehouse and fulfillment center where he has been for nearly three years. In the years that Heimbach has been on the job he says that nearly 100 workers employed at the facility are forced to undergo extensive security searches without pay every day, something that adds up to a significant amount of lost time in the long run.
Though the searches themselves are invasive, Heimbach’s problem is not that they happen at all, but that they are taking place when employees should be off the clock. The searches begin when employees walk through metal detectors at the start of each shift and then undergo wand screening which can take between 10 and 20 minutes to conclude. On lunch breaks workers must again clock out and do the same thing, walking through metal detectors and again be subjected to screening. The time eaten up by these searches seriously cuts into workers’ 30-minute lunch breaks.
Heimbach said that he has grown frustrated by Amazon’s policies regarding searching workers and decided to take action. Heimbach’s claim points out that workers should be paid on company time for submitting to lengthy security checks. Amazon, for its part, says that paying workers to go through security is unheard of and not something it is considering. Amazon says that it and other companies have never paid warehouse workers for time spent processing employees post-shift and does not intend to start unless a judge orders them to do so.
Source: “Amazon Sued Over 20-Minute, Unpaid, Daily Security Searches of Workers,” by Cheryl Chumley, published at WashingtonTimes.com.
Source: “Worker Sues Amazon Over Lengthy Security Searches Without Pay,” by Queen Muse, published at NBCNews.com.
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