From Land Line Media, Tyson Fisher reports that truck drivers for Natinoal Freight Inc. (NFI) reached a settlement of their misclassification claims. This case began in November 2015 when the drivers filed a lawsuit alleging that they were misclassied as independent contractors. Tyson writes:
Truck drivers for National Freight Inc. (NFI) have reached a settlement with the company in an employee misclassification lawsuit that had been going on for nearly a decade.
NFI has agreed to pay $5.75 million to end a lawsuit accusing the logistics giant of misclassifying certain truck drivers as independent truck drivers. The class action suit includes just over 100 drivers. After attorney fees, each driver could receive more than $30,000.
At the center of the dispute are truck drivers who delivered goods from Trader Joe’s warehouses. NFI allegedly hired both employees and independent contractors who performed the same job. This lawsuit was a typical misclassification case about control over independent contractors’ daily tasks. Contractors had to display NFI’s logo and use its Department of Transportation number. They also claimed they couldn’t deliver for other companies.
Specifically, contractors were assigned set routes that included the time they had to leave a distribution center. Drivers were to arrive 30 minutes before that scheduled time and were monitored with NFI’s Qualcomm system during the trip.
Independent contractors could not negotiate the per-mile pay or fuel surcharges, giving up control over how much they could earn. The complaint alleged that National Freight would delay increases in the fuel surcharge amounts for several weeks when the cost of fuel increased. However, when the cost of fuel decreased, the fuel surcharge amounts would be immediately calculated.
Despite not being employees, contractors had to sit through various NFI company meetings. No additional pay was received for that time.
Read the full story at NFI misclassification fight ends in $5.75M deal » Land Line Media