Sixty-four FedEx delivery drivers in Nevada have filed federal lawsuits accusing the shipping giant of stiffing them on overtime pay, adding their names to a sprawling legal battle that now involves more than 10,000 drivers across the country. The drivers allege they regularly worked more than 40 hours a week without receiving the extra pay they say they were owed.
The Nevada cases were filed in the United States District Court of Nevada on September 29 and September 30, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The lawsuits are essentially identical to one another, differing only in the names of the plaintiffs, and each alleges the same core claim: that the driver regularly worked beyond 40 hours a week but was never paid overtime. Every case rests on the argument that FedEx, despite hiring drivers through intermediary companies, still counts as their employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
At the center of FedEx's defense is a classification move the company made in the early 2010s, when it shifted delivery drivers from independent contractors into a new structure built around Independent Service Providers, or ISPs. Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is litigating the case for all of the plaintiffs, said FedEx put that intermediary layer between itself and drivers specifically to disclaim responsibility for unpaid overtime and other worker protections. FedEx, for its part, has claimed it does not have to pay overtime because it hires delivery drivers as independent service providers rather than direct employees, and that it is not the employer responsible for overtime payments. FedEx told the Review-Journal that service providers are contractually and legally obligated to comply with wage-and-hour laws and said it looked forward to addressing the issues in court.
A Legal Fight Shannon Liss-Riordan Calls Decades-Long
Liss-Riordan described the Nevada filings as part of a much longer-running dispute, saying the lawsuits are part of a decades-long fight with FedEx over delivery-driver employment and overtime pay. That history includes real money: FedEx has previously paid nearly $500 million to settle driver misclassification claims, including a $228 million settlement in 2015 covering more than 2,000 California FedEx Ground drivers and a $240 million settlement in 2016 covering roughly 12,000 drivers across 20 other states, according to Forbes. Those earlier cases followed a 2014 ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Alexander v. FedEx Ground Package System, which found the drivers were employees under state law despite independent-contractor labels, Forbes reported.
The question of who actually employs these drivers, FedEx or the ISPs, sits at the heart of every one of the new Nevada filings. The lawsuits argue that drivers working under intermediary ISPs are also FedEx employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that joint employers are responsible for complying with wage and hour laws, including overtime rules. Whether FedEx qualifies as such a joint employer may increasingly hinge on federal guidance: the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a revised joint-employer rule in April 2026 establishing a four-factor test that looks at whether a company has the authority to hire, fire, schedule, set pay, or keep employment records for a subcontractor's workers.
Why Nevada's Daily Overtime Rule Matters Here
Nevada drivers may have an added layer of protection that workers in other states don't. Under Nevada Revised Statutes Section 608.018, employers must pay 1.5 times the regular rate for any hours worked beyond eight in a single workday for non-exempt employees earning less than $18.00 per hour, on top of standard weekly overtime after 40 hours. Nevada also bars employers from using tip earnings to offset minimum wage or overtime obligations, meaning any overtime owed to these drivers would have to be calculated strictly off their gross base hourly pay.
These 64 Nevada cases didn't emerge in isolation. The lawsuits trace back to a collective action originally brought in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where a judge ordered in May 2026 that all claims had to be filed individually rather than proceeding as one unified case. That procedural shift helps explain the large number of lawsuits.
More Filings Still Coming, Attorney Says
Liss-Riordan said filings are still ongoing nationwide, with the process having started a little under a month before October 2, and she expects it to wrap up in a couple more weeks. The lawsuits ask for restitution covering all unpaid overtime, liquidated damages and prejudgment interest, litigation costs and attorneys' fees, and any other relief the court deems just and proper.
The Nevada filings land amid broader structural changes inside FedEx. FedEx had planned a consolidation under its DRIVE transformation initiative, with a target date of June 2024. Top Class Actions reported that plaintiffs alleged FedEx controlled aspects of delivery work, uniforms, and vehicles, and that roughly 15,000 drivers filed five class-action lawsuits in August 2024 after earlier collective actions hit procedural hurdles: Top Class Actions.
Nevada's FedEx cases also fit into a wider national pattern of regulators and private attorneys targeting delivery companies over contractor classification. In September, the District of Columbia Attorney General secured a $95,000 settlement with delivery platform Weee! over similar driver misclassification allegations, a case Hoodline previously covered. FedEx has also discussed savings from its Network 2.0 consolidation.
