Thirty-eight FedEx delivery drivers sued the company in U.S. District Court in Charleston on Oct. 8 and 9, alleging they are owed unpaid overtime, according to federal court records and The Post and Courier.

They were part of a wave of more than 200 nearly identical suits filed across South Carolina, the newspaper reported Oct. 18. Each driver claims a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and asks for a jury trial.

The drivers are paid by contractors that FedEx calls independent service providers. Their complaints argue that FedEx controls the work so closely that it is their employer under federal law and owes time-and-a-half for weeks over 40 hours. The complaints cite FedEx uniforms and logos, FedEx-issued scanners, delivery rules set by FedEx and workdays that start and end at FedEx terminals. One Charleston complaint, filed for a driver who worked in Charleston County, says drivers typically arrive at least 30 minutes to an hour before their routes to organize, scan and load packages.

FedEx says the drivers work for the contractors. “We maintain that service providers are contractually and legally obligated to comply with all wage and hour laws as it relates to their employees,” the company said in an Oct. 15 written statement, The Post and Courier reported. “We look forward to addressing these issues in court.”

The suits are refilings. The drivers’ claims had been part of a mass action in federal court in western Pennsylvania until a May 18 order severed them and directed each driver to refile within 60 days in the district where they worked, according to one of the Charleston complaints. That deadline was paused while the parties tried mediation, which failed, the complaint says.

Boston attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, whose firm, Lichten & Liss-Riordan, is the drivers’ lead law firm, told the newspaper that roughly 10,000 suits are being filed in federal districts nationwide. “We’ve been trying for years to get these cases to trial,” she said. Kingston Coventry, a Mount Pleasant firm, is local counsel.

The drivers seek unpaid overtime, liquidated damages, interest and legal fees.