FedEx wage suit puts HR security and timeclock policies under fire
FedEx faces a Minnesota lawsuit alleging unpaid wages for warehouse workers’ security screenings and daily walks to timeclocks.
In a case filed December 10, 2025, in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, package handler Patrick Ingles alleges that Federal Express Corporation and FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. failed to pay hourly, non-exempt warehouse employees in Minnesota for certain pre- and post-shift time.
Ingles, who lives in Monticello, Wright County, Minnesota, says he has worked for the defendants since February 2022 as an hourly, non-exempt Package Handler. He brings the case individually and on behalf of other similarly situated workers, seeking to represent a class of hourly, non-exempt employees at FedEx warehouses across the state.
According to the filing, the defendants own and operate approximately eleven large warehouses in Minnesota, including locations in Bemidji, Mankato, Minneapolis, Rogers, Rosemount, Stewartville, Saint Cloud, Saint Paul, Shakopee, and Willmar. The allegations focus on what happens immediately before workers clock in and immediately after they clock out.
The lawsuit states that at the beginning of each shift, employees must enter the premises through a single employee entrance, either an external guard shack or the main warehouse entrance. From there, they are required to walk to a security checkpoint and undergo a mandatory inbound security screening before they may proceed further into the building to where the timeclocks are located.
The filing says the purpose of the inbound security screening is to ensure the safety of the defendants’ workers, customers, and vendors by confirming that employees are not bringing weapons or other contraband into the workplace. Ingles alleges that completion of this screening is required to access the premises, clock in, and perform assigned duties, and that employees are subject to discipline if they attempt to bypass the inbound protocols.
At the end of each shift, the defendants allegedly require workers to punch out at a timeclock located within the warehouse, then walk back to the security area and comply with outbound security screening before leaving the premises through the same single entrance. The suit describes the outbound screening as intended to deter and detect theft and alleges that employees may be disciplined if they attempt to bypass the outbound protocols.
The filing describes the warehouses as “massive” and notes that the Rosemount and Willmar locations are both approximately 217,000 square feet. It alleges that, because of the size of the warehouses and the placement of the timeclocks, workers spend several minutes each day going through inbound and outbound security and walking to and from the timeclocks.
Ingles estimates that he regularly spent approximately 7–10 minutes total per day on security screenings and walking time. For most of 2025, he says, he typically worked about 30 hours on the clock per week but was not paid for approximately 28–40 minutes per week spent before and after his paid shifts on the premises. According to the filing, this unpaid time amounts to approximately one full week of unpaid work per year for him.
The suit alleges that, as a result of common security screening and walking time practices across the Minnesota warehouses, the defendants have retained hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid straight-time wages owed to Ingles and the proposed class members. It brings a claim under Minnesota wage laws and seeks unpaid back straight time wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and class certification for all current and former hourly, non-exempt workers at the Minnesota warehouses from December 10, 2022, through the date of final judgment.
The case is at the pleading stage, and the court has not made any findings on the truth of the allegations.
