Walmart illegally opened bank accounts for over 1 million drivers, CFPB alleges
CNN
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Walmart and fintech company Branch Messenger for allegedly forcing more than a million delivery workers to use expensive deposit accounts to access their paychecks, the agency announced Monday.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Walmart and fintech company Branch Messenger for allegedly forcing more than a million delivery workers to use expensive deposit accounts to access their paychecks, the agency announced Monday. The companies opened deposit accounts for Walmart’s drivers with their personal information, such as Social Security numbers, without authorization, according to the agency’s complaint. Walmart’s Spark Drivers, who the company classes as independent contractors who bring packages from the company’s warehouses to customers’ doorsteps, could only have their pay deposited into the Branch accounts, the complaint says. Since 2021, Walmart told workers that they could lose their jobs for not using the accounts, according to the lawsuit. Accessing their earnings took a “complex process” that sometimes led to “weekslong” delays, the lawsuit said, despite assurances they would have instant access to their pay. And drivers paid a combined total of $10 million in “junk fees” to transfer those wages into other bank accounts, CFPB alleges. “Companies cannot force workers into getting paid through accounts that drain their earnings with junk fees,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. The lawsuit described the typical Spark Driver as “a woman, has children, does not have a college degree, and is low income.”
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