Workers at two United Parcel Service package centers in Vermont are accusing their employer of violating state family and medical leave laws by using their paid time off without their knowledge or consent.
UPS workers at package centers in Brattleboro and Wilder shared documents with VTDigger showing that their previously approved unpaid family and medical leave had been switched with their paid time off. In making the switch, the UPS locations effectively reduced the amount of paid days workers can take off.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, entitles workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a one-year period for certain family or medical needs. Vermont law has continually expanded those rights since the 1990s, including giving workers up to four hours of unpaid short-term leave every 30 days for purposes such as taking children to medical appointments or school activities and taking family members to appointments related to their well-being.
Vermont law also states that employees can use accrued paid leave, including vacation and personal leave, in lieu of unpaid family and medical leave “at the employee’s discretion.” However, the UPS workers claim management used their paid leave without their permission.
This accusation has prompted action from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — a labor union that represents 1.3 million workers globally — and a potential incoming response by the Vermont attorney general’s office.
A UPS spokesperson told VTDigger in a statement on Friday that the company is “aware of the issue,” and is taking “necessary steps to quickly correct the situation and ensure this is not an issue in the future.”
Issues for package center workers in Wilder began in February, after Driver Supervisor Nick Webster allegedly expressed his frustration over drivers using FMLA during a snowstorm in a way he thought was improper, according to a June 9 complaint filed with the Vermont attorney general’s office.
Webster said that after a meeting with the UPS’s labor department, it was decided that anyone attempting to use FMLA would have that unpaid leave swapped with their paid time off, the complaint alleges. It also says that a union steward told Webster this would be illegal, but that Webster did not seem to care.
Webster declined comment for this story, and two UPS labor managers covering the Vermont area did not reply to requests for comment.
Two workers at the Wilder package center who spoke to VTDigger described being confused about how the situation around the FMLA unfolded. Despite the issue being discussed in February, the workers said, it took until late May for them to see their previously approved family and medical leave swapped with paid time off. One worker at the Brattleboro package center also said that the issue began for them in May.
One of the Wilder package center workers, David Kendall, a driver, said that by changing his leave from FMLA to personal and sick days, management left him with fewer days available to spend with his teenage nephew, Jerimiah. Kendall has had full custody of Jerimiah since 2014.
Kendall, who has been with UPS for almost a decade, said he enjoys his route that regularly weaves through the backroads of Springfield and Eastman, a journey so rural that when he’s driving he often doesn’t have cellphone service.
“When I’m out on the road, I’m essentially my own boss. I enjoy the freedom of not having somebody looking over my shoulder every five minutes, like if I was in an office setting,” Kendall told VTDigger. “I enjoy when I’m delivering a parcel to someone and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we were hoping for you to be here on time for so-and-so’s birthday or an important event,’ and they’re like, ‘We weren’t expecting you so soon!’ and have a huge smile on their face.”
Kendall said, in interviews with VTDigger, that he first noticed the issue after a previously approved FMLA full-day leave on May 27 was switched to an option day. This is a form of paid time off earned by UPS workers. This switch was made by Webster without Kendall’s knowledge or consent, he said. Since May, Kendall said, he has had six days of paid time off taken without his permission: four of his five sick days and two of his three option days.
“Now I have no sick days. So if I’m sick, I still have to go to work,” he said. “And, they took the option days I would use to spend more time with my nephew … to attend school events that he wanted me to attend, and stuff like that, ’cause he plays basketball for the youth basketball team.”
Kendall said that until May, he had been allowed to use family and medical leave to take Jerimiah to medical appointments. Jerimiah has developmental and cognitive challenges, as well as mental health issues, Kendall said.
“Whenever we took FMLA, it wasn’t an issue,” he said. “I would go into work and I’d work like four, five, six hours, and then I would take the rest of the day off to get him to his appointments.”
Payroll and insurance documents obtained and reviewed by VTDigger show that six of Kendall’s previously approved family and medical leave days were switched with sick and option days by various members of UPS package center management.
Kendall is not the only worker alleging that their unpaid family and medical leave was switched without their consent.
Justin Doubleday, an employee at the UPS package center in Brattleboro, said that in one instance this issue led to a workplace confrontation. He said he took his 10-year-old son to a medical visit using previously approved short-term family leave. When he attempted to return to work at the Brattleboro package center, he said, he found his truck wasn’t loaded. He said he discovered that management had put him in for a sick day.
“I put in for four hours of short term FMLA … instead they put me in for a sick day. They put in the system that I called out sick, even though I gave them a week in advance a short-term family medical leave form and let them know that I would be into work after. … Everybody there, other management included, were like ‘This is fucked up. This isn’t right. You put in for FMLA.’”
Doubleday said he confronted the supervisor who had put in the sick day without Doubleday’s consent. After an argument and pressure from other members of management, the supervisor reversed the decision, Doubleday said. The supervisor gave Doubleday back his sick day and paid him for the 33 minutes he had spent arguing in the facility that day before going home.
“This is the shit that they do and that we put up with. Isn’t that ridiculous?” Doubleday said.
Documents obtained by VTDigger show that one of Doubleday’s previously approved short-term family and medical leave was replaced with an option day.
UPS did not respond to a request for comment Monday on the specific allegations made by the workers.
Union action
After learning his paid time off had been used, Kendall said, he alerted the union — Teamsters Local 597, a chapter of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Kendall filed multiple grievances with the union, and union officials communicated the FMLA issue directly with UPS management, according to the June 9 complaint filed with the Vermont attorney general.
On June 26, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent a letter to UPS’s counsel, demanding they “immediately cease and desist from requiring our members in Vermont use their accrued paid leave during FMLA-qualifying leave,” further stating that they were prepared to take legal action if they did not hear from UPS by July 4.
“They’re not just violating the law, they’re violating the collective bargaining agreement. So it’s not just a law enforcement issue, it’s also an issue for the international union,” said Curtis Clough, president of Local 597.
The union’s contract with UPS states that the company, “may require the employee to substitute accrued paid vacation or other paid leave,” when a worker is taking FMLA, but that workers are permitted two weeks of paid vacation that cannot be substituted for FMLA.
However, the contract goes on to say that these provisions, “shall not supersede any state or local law, which provides for greater employee rights,” meaning Vermont’s family leave law supersedes the contract.
Clough, who worked his way up from a seasonal helper at UPS to a full-time driver before leaving to take a position at the union, said the paid time theft is an escalation in what has become a fractious relationship between management and workers. The union does not know why UPS has stood so firmly behind what he sees is a clear violation of the law, he said.
“UPS is pretty antagonistic. … UPS routinely harasses drivers, so it’s hard to pick out a reason why,” he said. “There is no longer a culture where the driver supervisors come up through the ranks.”
According to communications obtained by VTDigger, at least one of the attorney general’s senior investigators has reviewed the alleged violations at the package centers. A representative from the attorney general’s office told VTDigger that the office could not comment on what cases they are investigating.
