California truckers win $2 million in wage theft suit

日期:2015-01-31 18:39:56
阿联酋迪拜杰贝阿里港(Jebel Ali Port)

LOS ANGELES Jan 30 (Reuters) - Seven Los Angeles-areatruckers have won a $2 million claim against an internationalshipping company accused of stealing their wages by improperlyclassifying them as independent contractors and charging them tolease its trucks to drive.

In a decision with implications for hundreds of companiesand thousands of truckers in Southern California alone, a SanDiego County Superior Court judge held that the seven plaintiffsshould have been defined as employees of Pacer Cartage underCalifornia's labor law, not as independent owner-operators.

Judge Jay Bloom ruled the seven drivers, who were Hispanicand spoke little English, were entitled to reimbursement for themoney California-based Pacer deducted from their wages for thetruck leases, insurance, vehicle maintenance, fuel and otherout-of-pocket expenses.

That judgment, returned on Wednesday after a 14-day non-jurytrial, came to just over $2 million collectively, the same sumpreviously awarded to the seven truckers by a state laborcommissioner and appealed to the court by the company.

Alvin Gomez, the lead plaintiff's attorney, said on Fridaythe ruling would bolster litigation already brought againstseveral other trucking firms and for additional wage-theftlawsuits he planned to file next week.

"This is a tremendous victory in the fight againstmisclassification," Gomez said, adding that the ruling had thepotential to "forever reshape the United States truckingindustry."

He said most California freight hauling companies nowoperate under the same complex truck-leasing scheme, which thejudge ruled violates state labor law.

Pacer, a subsidiary of global shipping company XPO LogisticsInc, plans to appeal the judge's decision, said TroyCooper, XPO's chief operating officer.

"We believe the drivers in question are properly classifiedas contractors, and that this case is without merit," he said.

The truckers worked at the twin ports of Los Angeles andLong Beach, the busiest U.S. container cargo hub.

Gomez said misclassification of drivers became morepervasive after a new clean air program went into effect in2008, barring older, heavier-polluting trucks from the ports.

Many drivers, unable to afford to buy new trucks of theirown, were forced to sell their rigs and lease trucks fromshipping companies, which also acquired exclusive access to thewaterfront under port "concessions" created under the clean-airprogram.

The truckers were barred from entering the ports to pick upcargo unless driving for an authorized concession. And theirlease arrangements effectively locked them in to driving for nomore than one company. (Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco;Editing by Richard Borsuk)

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