Unpaid wages class action lawsuits overview:
- Who: Current and former workers filed unpaid wages class action lawsuits against FedEx, Kroger, UPS and Home Depot.
- Why: The workers claim the companies failed to pay wages and hours owed for mandatory security screenings completed before and after shifts.
- Where: Three lawsuits were filed in Colorado federal court, and one in Connecticut federal court.
- How to get help: If you’ve been denied off-the-clock payments as a worker in California over the past three years, you may be entitled to sue for compensation.
Four unpaid wages class action lawsuits, filed within consecutive days, accuse FedEx, Kroger, UPS and Home Depot of failing to pay employees for mandatory security screening time each shift.
Current and former workers at FedEx, Kroger and UPS filed wage and hour complaints in Colorado federal, while a former Home Depot worker filed a complaint in Connecticut federal court.
According to the complaints, employees had to report to a screening checkpoint before and after every shift, wait in line, empty their pockets and pass through a metal detector, with a secondary handheld-wand search if the alarm sounded. Kroger, UPS and Home Depot workers were also subjected to bag inspections, while at Home Depot, employees had to scan an ID badge to enter the warehouse.
The FedEx, Kroger and UPS lawsuits allege violations of Colorado wage-and-hour regulations, arguing screening time is compensable “time worked” and cite the state’s “continuous workday” rule, since Colorado never adopted the federal Portal-to-Portal Act, to argue walking time must also be paid.
The Home Depot lawsuit cites Connecticut law and the state Supreme Court’s 2026 ruling in Del Rio v. Amazon.com Services, which held that mandatory screenings are compensable as “hours worked.”
All four class action lawsuits seek unpaid minimum and overtime wages, penalties, interest and attorneys’ fees, and each includes a jury trial demand.
Kroger and UPS complaints add rest break claims
The Kroger unpaid wages class action lawsuit also alleges the company deducted 30 minutes per shift for a meal break even when drivers took none, and failed to authorize 10-minute paid rest breaks for every four hours worked.
Drivers allege three to five minutes of unpaid time gathering and returning equipment at a dispatch office each shift. Plaintiffs in the Kroger class action lawsuit propose a second class consisting of delivery drivers over the same period.
The UPS complaint also brings a rest-break claim on behalf of a second class of hourly employees who were denied a 10-minute-break every 4 hours. UPS workers allegedly spent 10 to 15 minutes walking between the checkpoint, called the “guard shack,” and their workstations, plus two to four minutes logging into the timekeeping system.
Meanwhile, the FedEx complaint omits rest-break and meal-break claims but alleges workers were barred from carrying phones into the facility, requiring them to additionally walk to a locker before clocking in.
All four class action lawsuits want to represent current and former employees who completed a security screening in Colorado or Connecticut at any time during the three years before each complaint was filed and continuing through the present. The Kroger and UPS complaints propose a second class of delivery drivers and hourly employees, respectively, who were denied rest break claims.
Have you ever had wages withheld for mandatory security screening time? Let us know in the comments.
The FedEx, Kroger and UPS workers are represented by Don J. Foty of Foty Law Group. The Home Depot worker is represented by James S. Brewer of James S. Brewer Attorney at Law and Don J. Foty of Foty Law Group.
The unpaid wages class actions are Abeyta, et al. v. FedEx Ground Package System Inc., et al., Case No. 1:26-cv-03029; Curtis, et al. v. The Kroger Co., Case No. 1:26-cv-03036; and Reeves, et al. v. United Parcel Service Inc., Case No. 1:26-cv-03038, all in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The Home Depot case is Hite-Reid v. Home Depot U.S.A. Inc., Case No. 3:26-cv-01084, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
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