Lawsuit filed against SSA Cooper

According to Charleston newspaper The Post and Courier, the proposed class-action complaint, filed in early August in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, alleges that SSA Cooper violates federal labour laws by not paying employees 1.5x their regular pay for working more than 40 hours weekly.

The legal action comes months after the stevedoring firm — a partnership between SSA Marine and Cooper/T. Smith — settled a separate class-action lawsuit filed last year by Charleston area stevedores.

Regarding the new claim, court documents note that the workers say SSA Cooper has misclassified them as executives exempt from overtime pay “to save on labour costs and make higher profits”.

No hearing dates have been set.

Marybeth Mullaney, a lawyer who is representing the workers, said: “These stevedores sometimes work 75 hours a week in the heat and the cold and in the hull of ships. In my opinion, I think these guys are being exploited.”

SSA Cooper is one of three businesses hired by shipping lines to provide stevedores to the Port of Charleston, with these dockworkers supervising International Longshoremen’s Association workers who load and unload ships, secure cargo containers and drive vehicles at the port’s terminals.

In December, the stevedoring company agreed to pay nearly $700,000 to 25 workers and Ms Mullaney (who represented the workers), settling the separate lawsuit filed last year.

According to the lawyer, while SSA Cooper paid the settlement in last year’s case, it did not alter its policies and kept withholding overtime pay to workers.

Due to one of the stevedores having worked at SSA Cooper’s sites in Texas’ Houston and Port Arthur, the latest lawsuit could have US implications.

While the other stevedores are from the Charleston area, Ms Mullaney said she might look to include SSA Cooper employees from other parts of the US in the class action “depending on how the litigation proceeds”, noting that a final decision would be up to a judge.

SSA Cooper has not filed a response to the allegations and did not respond to requests to comment from Port Strategy.