Lawsuit claims PPA failed to pay security officers for work during required breaks

A security officer for the Philadelphia Parking Authority filed a class-action lawsuit this week accusing the agency of illegally deducting wages for years of work performed during mandatory breaks.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, alleges PPA is violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and a pair of state labor laws.

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Terrez McCleary, the plaintiff, has been a PPA security officer since 2018. The job involves monitoring and securing PPA's impoundment lots, include a facility on Oregon Avenue in South Philly and several others in neighborhoods throughout the city.

PPA has a policy that requires all of its security officers to take 30-minute meal and rest breaks while continuing to oversee the lots where they are assigned, the lawsuit says. PPA automatically deducts the break time from workers' paychecks.

The lawsuit calls the breaks "illusory" because security officers are required to stay at their posts, monitor vehicle and pedestrian traffic, respond to customers and operate entry and exit gates to the impoundment lots.

Pond Lehocky Giordano, the law firm representing McCleary, says the suit has standing for a class of workers that includes 20 to 30 other current security officers. The size could be much larger if it includes former employees over the last three years, the legal timeframe for filing a collective claim.

PPA declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges PPA's actions were willful and have deprived the workers of both regular wages and overtime that would have accrued if the 30-minute breaks were not deducted from their timesheets.

McCleary complained to her supervisor about the breaks on several occasions but was repeatedly dismissed, the lawsuit says. When she told her supervisor she planned to contact a lawyer, he allegedly "laughed at her."

The lawsuit is asking the court to recognize McCleary as the representative of a class of security officers and to award them damages for all unpaid wages, attorney fees and other restitution. The suit is seeking a jury trial to resolve the claims.