An Allentown man, fed up with the daily 10-20 minute security checks that he and fellow employees must go through before work, after work, and during lunch breaks, has filed a class-action law suit against his employer and retail giant, Amazon. According to an article on the WashingtonTimes.com, he is alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act.
NBC reports that the man works in Amazon’s Breinigsville warehouse along with almost 100 other workers. They are forced to go through security searches without pay. The checks take place when the employees are officially off the clock.
The searches involve the employees walking through a metal detector as well as wand screening. The security checks take place at the beginning of a shift, on the return from lunch breaks, and at the end of shifts. The searches can take between 10 and 20 minutes. The employees feel that such lengthy checks should be performed on paid company time.
The article quotes court documents filed by Amazon that explain, “Defendants have never paid warehouse workers for time spent processing through this required post-shift screening process prior to exiting the Amazon Fulfillment Center. As a result of the compensation practice utilized by defendants, warehouse workers are not compensated for all time during which they were required to be on the premises of the Amazon Fulfillment Center.”
It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds.