FedEx Settles USERRA Guard/Reserve Class Action Lawsuit
Federal Express Corporation has reached a $900,000 class action settlement to resolve claims that the company failed to pay Guard/Reserve members during short-term military leave while compensating non-military workers for absences like jury duty and bereavement.
FedEx Settles USERRA Guard/Reserve Class Action Lawsuit
Plaintiffs Charlinda Williams, a former courier and Air National Guard sergeant, and Richard Quichocho, an aviation maintenance technician and Coast Guard reservist, filed suit in federal court alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.
The settlement resolves claims for approximately 1,100 current and former non-pilot workers who took unpaid military leave between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2024. As part of the agreement, FedEx adopted a prospective paid leave policy for non-pilot employees. The policy provides up to 80 hours of paid short-term military leave annually for full-time workers and 40 hours annually for part-time workers.
Federal law requires businesses to protect jobs and benefits of military members under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. Those protections extend to members of the Guard and Reserve, who can have their civilian careers interrupted by military service.
What Federal Law Says
When you are called to duty as a member of the National Guard or Reserve, your employer must protect your job, your position, and your pay according to the regulations in the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, and this is not the first time FedEx has run afoul of federal law regarding Guard and Reserve duty.
It’s the employer’s duty to know and abide by federal laws governing how Guard and Reserve members must be treated under the law.
If you serve in the Guard or Reserve and get called to active duty while maintaining a civilian career, USERRA is your protection and guarantees:
- You have the right to get your job back when you return.
- You are legally entitled to the same seniority, status, and pay rate you would have achieved if you had never left for military duty.
- Depending on how long you were deployed, the law gives you a window of time to rest before you can be required to return to work.
- For deployments lasting more than 180 days, you generally have up to 90 days to return to your employer.
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Other FedEx USERRA Issues
A FedEx worker and U.S. Navy Reserve member filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in 2019, arguing that a FedEx practice of withholding pay from reservists while funding non-military leave was in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
This federal law states that employees taking military leave must receive the same non-seniority benefits that an employer offers to workers taking comparable non-military leave.
2020 Case Dismissal
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania threw out this lawsuit in 2020, siding with FedEx, deciding that paid military leave was not a protected benefit under federal law.
FedEx claimed that military leave was unique and had no direct civilian equivalent. The company argued that since no military reservists received pay during military drills, all service members received equal treatment under corporate policy. The district judge agreed, reading the federal law to exclude wages for times when an employee performs no civilian work.
In August 2021, a panel of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court decision in Travers v. Federal Express Corp, ruling that getting paid during an absence fits squarely within the federal definition of an employment benefit.
Section 4303(2) defines job benefits broadly to include any financial advantage or privilege created by company rules. If a business chooses to pay workers during civilian absences, that pay becomes protected and must be offered on equal terms to reservists who are called to duty, go to drill weekend, etc.
Rejecting FexEx Arguments
The Third Circuit rejected the claim that military leave cannot be compared to civilian time off. The panel held that companies cannot define leave categories so narrowly that military service becomes impossible to compare to anything else.
The court explained that federal law requires looking at whether non-military leave options share basic similarities in length, purpose, and control.
Because civilian workers cannot take military leave, refusing to pay reservists creates unequal treatment between military duty and civilian absences. The court sent the case back down to determine if FedEx’s paid civilian leave options matched short-term military absences
The Third Circuit decision matched a ruling from the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in White v. United Airlines, Inc. Both appellate courts confirmed that federal law stops private employers from penalizing military reservists financially when similar paid leave exists for civilian staff.
FedEx Settles But Admits No Wrongdoing
In 2023, FedEx agreed to a $1.5 million class action settlement to resolve these claims. FedEx did so without admitting any wrongdoing. As a result of the ruling, companies operating in the Third and Seventh Circuits face legal risk if they keep paying staff for jury duty, bereavement, or sick leave while leaving reservists unpaid during short-term military duties.
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About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
