FedEx USERRA Military Leave (After Jan. 1, 2023) Litigation

Summary of Lawsuit

This lawsuit alleges that FedEx Corporation violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”) by failing to provide compensation or paid leave to non-pilot employees (other than salaried employees) who took short-term military leave from Federal Express Corporation (“FedEx”) since January 1, 2023.

  • Under USERRA, employees who take military leave must receive the same rights and benefits during such military leave as other employees who take comparable forms of leave and military leave must be treated no less favorably than other types of leave that are provided by the employer to its employees.

    The Complaint alleges that FedEx violated USERRA by providing paid leave to FedEx employees for other types of leave, such as jury duty, sick leave and bereavement leave, but not providing paid leave to FedEx employees who take short-term military leave. As a result of this violation, FedEx employees who are also servicemembers have received and will receive less compensation during their short-term military leave than employees who took other comparable forms of leave.

    This lawsuit seeks a declaration that FedEx violated USERRA, an order requiring FedEx to pay servicemembers on short-term military leave on an equal basis to other forms of leave, and an order requiring FedEx to recalculate pay consistent with USERRA.

    The Complaint was filed on behalf of non-pilot employees who took short-term military leave from FedEx since January 1, 2023 as opposed to the prior lawsuit, which has settled and was concerning short-term military leave prior to January 1, 2023. You can read more about the first case here: Beanland v. FedEx

  • This lawsuit has been brought on behalf of the following classes:

    (a) The Pay Class

    Current and former permanent non-pilot employees of Federal Express Corporation (“FedEx”) who took short-term military leave (periods of 14 days or fewer) from their employment with FedEx at any time from January 1, 2023 through the date of judgment in this action and during that short-term military leave were not paid the compensation they would have earned had they worked for FedEx instead of taking military leave.

    (b) The Injunctive Relief Class

    Current permanent non-pilot employees of Federal Express Corporation (“FedEx”) who are also in the military at the same time they were employed by Fedex.

    Excluded from the Classes are all former or current salaried employees of FedEx who have only worked at FedEx after October 31, 2020.

  • The Class Action Complaint was filed on March 11, 2024. The Defendant has not yet responded to the complaint.

Whom to Contact for More Information

If you are a member of the proposed class or you have information which might assist us in the prosecution of these allegations, please contact one of the following persons:

R. Joseph Barton, Esq. jbarton@bartondownes.com

Colin M. Downes, Esq. colin@bartondownes.com

Ming Siegel, Paralegal ming@bartondownes.com

Barton & Downes LLP

1633 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 200

Washington, DC 20009

(202) 734-7046

 Barton & Downes is co-counsel with the Law Office of Thomas G. Jarrard LLC, Riverside NW Law Group PLLC and Kenneth S. Nugent P.C.