BioReference Labs Failed to Properly Pay COVID Testers on Royal Caribbean Cruises, Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed class and collective action claims that BioReference Laboratories, Inc. failed to pay proper wages to workers who performed COVID-19 tests on Royal Caribbean cruises.

The 26-page case alleges that individuals who worked for BioReference under the titles of cruise swabbers, swabbers and team leads are owed unpaid wages for off-the-clock work, mandatory travel and waiting time, time spent on call, and unreimbursed, work-related expenses. 

According to the suit, BioReference Laboratories has violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New Jersey and Washington state laws by failing to properly pay workers for every hour worked, including for overtime hours.

The lawsuit states that BioReference Labs contracts with Royal Caribbean Group to provide personnel to perform COVID-19 tests for passengers and crew on cruises that leave from or arrive in Bayonne, New Jersey; Los Angeles, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Port Canaveral and Tampa, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. 

Per the suit, BioReference classified swabbers as either bona fide employees or independent contractors, who the case argues should have been classified as employees given their employment conditions were “nearly identical.” In particular, team leads and swabbers, regardless of their employment classification, were assigned to seven-day cruises and tasked with conducting COVID-19 tests on passengers and crew, the lawsuit relays.

The case alleges, however, that BioReference frequently required the individuals to put in off-the-clock work without pay. More specifically, the suit says workers were not paid for mandatory travel and waiting time at the start of a cruise and for every hour worked on the first day of each cruise. According to the complaint, although workers were paid for travel time up until they unpacked on the ship, they received no wages for the time in between unpacking and attending a mandatory staff meeting on the first evening.

The suit goes on to claim that BioReference automatically deducted one hour from workers’ wages each day for an unpaid lunch break yet frequently required them to return from lunch after only 45 minutes to don protective gear and otherwise prepare to begin conducting COVID-19 tests as soon as they were back on the clock.

“Plaintiffs were not compensated for at least fifteen minutes on every shift because of this policy,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the case, workers are also owed unpaid wages for additional time spent working off the clock—including when they answered telephone calls or performed administrative work—and for hours spent on call. The suit claims that while workers were on call, they were essentially barred from using that time for their own purposes because they were not permitted to drink alcoholic beverages and were required to respond to any incoming calls on the ship phone, or “whatever request was made of [them].”

Moreover, BioReference managers frequently modified workers’ time records to avoid paying them for every hour worked, the lawsuit alleges.

Finally, the case claims that COVID-19 testers were not properly or timely reimbursed for work-related expenses, including transportation costs, airline baggage fees, data/internet usage and room service for instances when they could not take time away from their work to eat free meals.

The two plaintiffs, a New Jersey and a Florida resident who formerly worked for BioReference, claim the aforementioned practices caused them and other workers to incur unpaid regular and overtime hours, such that they were paid “far less than the amounts they were due.”

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone who is or was employed by BioReference, directly or indirectly through an outside agency, as a cruise swabber, swabber or team lead at a port and on a contracted Royal Caribbean ship traveling from a U.S. port within the past three years and who was subject to BioReference’s alleged policy of failing to pay overtime premiums for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek.

Also proposed are New Jersey- and Washington-specific classes. 

The full complaint can be found below.

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