Worker Exploitation
Conduct Screen Labor Rights
Systematic wage theft, misclassification of employees as contractors, unpaid overtime, tip theft, or other schemes to extract labor value without fair compensation. Includes gig economy misclassification and temp agency exploitation. Distinct from forced_labor (which involves coercion/captivity), working_conditions (physical safety), and anti_union (organizing suppression).
17 companies currently excluded under this screen
Excluded Companies (17 total)
Showing 17 of 17 companies excluded under this screen.
| Ticker | Company | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| DASH | DOORDASH INC CLASS A | DoorDash has faced sustained legal challenge over its classification of delivery workers — known as Dashers — as independent contractors rather than employees. Multiple lawsuits, including a proposed class action filed as early as May 2018, allege that DoorDash exercised sufficient control over how drivers performed their work to trigger employee status under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, yet classified them as contractors to avoid paying minimum wages, overtime, and reimbursement of business expenses such as fuel and vehicle costs. Attorneys pursuing mass arbitration against the company contend that this misclassification scheme affected drivers across the United States outside California, and that the company's operational control — including dispatch assignment, pricing, and delivery parameters — is incompatible with genuine independent contractor status under the economic realities test applied by federal courts. In October 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated, in a press release published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, that DoorDash, alongside Amazon and Walmart, is trapping workers in poverty. The statement specifically named DoorDash in the context of gig economy labor structures that deny workers the wage floors and benefit protections accorded to employees under national law. DoorDash has consistently maintained that Dashers prefer the flexibility of contractor status, and the company successfully backed Proposition 22 in California in 2020, which created a hybrid classification category shielding app-based delivery companies from state employee classification requirements. The underlying legal question of whether the contractor model constitutes systematic wage deprivation remains unresolved at the federal level. |
| ITRK | Intertek | Intertek Group PLC faces a live legal action brought by 130 former Burmese migrant workers who allege that Intertek's social audits of VK Garment factory in Thailand failed to detect — and thereby enabled — forced labour exploitation. According to a May 2024 press release from Labour Behind the Label, the workers are suing both Tesco and Intertek for the conditions they faced while manufacturing jeans for the Tesco supply chain. Campaigners staged a demonstration outside Intertek's annual general meeting in London on May 24, 2024, where Labour Behind the Label read a statement from the affected workers and asked Intertek's board whether it would settle the suit and meet directly with workers. The legal theory is significant: the workers are not merely claiming that conditions at VK Garment were dangerous, but that Intertek bore professional responsibility for certifying the factory as compliant while the violations persisted. Intertek's business model is premised on providing assurance that supply chains meet labor and safety standards. If courts find that its audits negligently cleared a facility where forced labour was occurring, the company faces both direct liability and a reputational challenge that goes to the core of its commercial value proposition. |
| CART | INSTACART (MAPLEBEAR INC) | Instacart’s business model is built on the systematic misclassification of its delivery personnel as independent contractors rather than employees. This classification denies hundreds of thousands of workers minimum wage guarantees, overtime pay, and expense reimbursements. In February 2023, the company agreed to a $46.5 million settlement with the City of San Diego covering approximately 308,000 misclassified workers in California. The State of California had separately alleged that Instacart unlawfully misclassified employees to deny them legal protections. This settlement resolved claims that the company improperly assigned delivery personnel as contractors to avoid providing employee benefits and protections. The practice of misclassification creates a structure for wage theft, as workers bear the full cost of vehicle maintenance, fuel, and insurance without the corresponding legal safeguards. Instacart continues to face legal challenges over this core business practice, including an ongoing case in the Ninth Circuit (Maplebear Inc. v. City of Seattle) concerning the enforcement of local gig worker protection laws. |
| SG | SWEETGREEN INC | Sweetgreen paid $750,000 to settle Richardson v. Sweetgreen (New York County, filed February 2022) for violations of the New York Labor Law including wage theft affecting hourly restaurant workers. The settlement resolved claims on behalf of a class of authorized claimants. This wage theft case is part of a documented pattern of labor law non-compliance at Sweetgreen: the company simultaneously faces the Alvarado discrimination lawsuit alleging systemic race and sex discrimination across seven New York City locations. Together these cases reveal a company culture in which front-line hourly workers bear the cost of management failures, from unpaid wages to discriminatory treatment. The wage theft settlement amount and the breadth of the labor law claims suggest the violations were not isolated incidents but reflected systemic payroll and compliance deficiencies. |
| DPZ | Domino's Pizza Inc | NY Attorney General sued Domino's Pizza and three franchisees in 2016 for systematic wage theft across 10 stores, alleging at least $565,000 in underpayment. The company's proprietary PULSE payroll system — required at all 5,000+ franchise locations — contained known flaws that undercalculated gross wages: failed to aggregate hours across stores for overtime, miscalculated tipped overtime rates, and omitted NY spread-of-hours pay. Domino's knew about the defects since 2007 but deemed fixes "low priority." Three franchisees settled for $480,000. The AG alleged Domino's also pressured franchisees to pursue an anti-union policy dictated by corporate. |
| JBHT | HUNT J B TRANSPORT SERVICES INC | J.B. Hunt has paid $25.7M in cumulative wage/labor settlements. The $15M Ortega v. J.B. Hunt settlement (2018, fought from 2007) covered ~11,000 California drivers denied proper compensation for pre/post-trip inspections, waiting time, and meal/rest breaks under J.B. Hunt's "activity-based pay" model. A $6.5M settlement (2020) resolved misclassification of 312 intermodal drivers as independent contractors who paid their own gas and maintenance while operating under company control. A $4.2M Washington settlement (2024) covered ~2,200 applicants affected by salary disclosure violations. Violation Tracker: $26.4M in total penalties across 28 records. |
| UPS | UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC | ViolationTracker documents 42 federal and state wage and hour violations against United Parcel Service totaling $138.7 million. Separately, UPS paid $98 million to settle New York state tax evasion claims in 2019, $40 million to the DOJ for Controlled Substances Act violations in 2013 related to illegal pharmacy shipments, and $25 million under the False Claims Act in 2015. The pattern spans decades and multiple enforcement agencies — DOJ, state attorneys general, and the Department of Labor — indicating systemic compliance failures rather than isolated incidents. |
| FAST | FASTENAL CO | Fastenal paid $10 million to settle a federal wage and hour class action in 2009 alleging systematic unpaid overtime for store managers. In 2011, Fastenal paid $6.25 million to resolve DOJ False Claims Act allegations. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs documented multiple discrimination settlements between 2015 and 2021 totaling $1.6 million, covering hiring discrimination at facilities across several states. Three independent enforcement actions from three separate federal agencies over twelve years indicate a pattern, not anomalies. |
| WBD | WARNER BROS DISCOVERY INC | WBD is defendant in Padilla v. Warner Bros. (filed Nov 2025, LA County Superior Court), a major class-action alleging failure to pay minimum wage and overtime to non-exempt employees between 2021-2025. Specifically: requiring workers to remain "on-call" without compensation, failing to pay for mandatory security and COVID-19 screenings, failing to provide uninterrupted meal and rest breaks. Follows 2021-2024 collective action (Case 2:21-cv-09632) involving late payments and "faux meal breaks." |
| FDX | FEDEX CORP | In NLRB Case No. 28-CA-023335, FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. was found to have violated the National Labor Relations Act by misclassifying drivers as independent contractors to avoid providing employee benefits. Update (2026-03-31): The Ninth Circuit separately ruled FedEx misclassified California Ground/Home Delivery drivers, leading to a $240M settlement in 2016 resolving cases across 20 states — one of the largest misclassification settlements in US history. |
| G | GENPACT LTD | Genpact faces systemic wage-and-hour litigation. Whitley v. Genpact LLC (N.D. Texas, Case No. 3:24-cv-01096, filed May 2024) alleges FLSA violations. In June 2024, court stayed action in favor of bilateral arbitration — a tactic criticized for hiding systemic wage theft patterns. Multi-year history of "misclassification" claims where mid-level staff labeled "exempt" to avoid overtime payments. |
| CBRE | CBRE GROUP INC | NY State DOL Wage Theft Investigation Dashboard lists CBRE Group for confirmed findings of unpaid wages, damages, and interest owed to workers in facilities management operations. US DOL Workers Owed Wages (WOW) application confirms back wages held by Treasury for CBRE employees. Pattern consistent with margin compression in competitive facilities management bidding. |
| ODFL | OLD DOMINION FREIGHT LINE INC | Old Dominion Freight Line has accumulated over $6.2 million in wage and hour violation penalties across multiple federal regulatory records. Combined with mandatory biometric fingerprint scanning without consent (active BIPA class action in Illinois), ODFL demonstrates a pattern of exploitative labor practices spanning wage theft and worker surveillance. |
| SHG | Shinhan | Shinhan was named in a U.S. Department of Labor complaint alleging violations of federal wage laws. The complaint states the company, along with another firm, withheld approximately $86,000 in wages from employees. This enforcement action documents a failure to meet basic legal obligations to its workforce. |
| CSX | CSX | CSX Corporation is a major U.S. freight railroad operator. The company has faced multiple OSHA enforcement actions for unsafe working conditions and has been cited for retaliating against workers who report safety concerns, a pattern documented across the Class I railroad industry. |
| NSC | Norfolk Southern Corporation | Norfolk Southern has faced repeated OSHA whistleblower complaints and DOL enforcement actions over retaliation against workers who report safety concerns. The railroad's labor practices have been documented as suppressing worker safety advocacy through disciplinary action. |
| META | Meta Platforms, Inc. | BHRRC 2025 data links Meta to the highest number of global migrant and gig worker abuse cases among major tech companies, concentrated in content moderation workforce |
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