Last-Mile Package Delivery — Pre-Shift Work Uncompensated, No Overtime
JoyBox LLC and UniUni Logistics, Inc. | Delivery Drivers | San Antonio, Texas
Buenker Law filed a federal lawsuit against JoyBox LLC and UniUni Logistics, Inc. — a last-mile e-commerce delivery platform — on behalf of delivery drivers in the San Antonio area who were misclassified as independent contractors and denied compensation for all of their working time. The drivers were paid on a piece-rate basis for each package delivered, with no overtime premium for hours worked beyond 40 per week. However, the wage violations in this case extended beyond the overtime issue: drivers were required to arrive hours before their scheduled delivery shifts to sort and catalog packages at the warehouse — work that was performed entirely off the clock and for which they received no pay at all.
Under the FLSA, all time that an employer requires an employee to spend for the benefit of the business must be compensated, including pre-shift preparation time. When that pre-shift time is added to the delivery hours, many of these workers were putting in well over 40 hours per week. The lawsuit also alleges a joint employer theory: both UniUni (the logistics platform that controlled the delivery operations) and JoyBox (the intermediary entity that managed the drivers) share responsibility for the wage violations, because both exercised control over the workers’ pay and working conditions.
The lawsuit was filed as a collective action on behalf of all delivery drivers paid piece-rate by these companies in Texas during the three-year period prior to filing. The case is pending in federal court in San Antonio.
Workers in similar situations may have legal rights under the FLSA. The statute of limitations is generally two years — three years if the employer’s conduct was willful. Time limits apply.
