Seven Los Angeles-area truckers have won a $2 million claim against an international shipping company accused of stealing their wages by improperly classifying them as independent contractors and charging them to lease its trucks to drive. In a decision with implications for hundreds of companies and thousands of truckers in Southern California alone, a San Diego County Superior Court judge held that the seven plaintiffs should have been defined as employees of Pacer Cartage under California's labour law, not as independent owner-operators.
Judge Jay Bloom ruled the seven drivers, who were Hispanic and spoke little English, were entitled to reimbursement for the money California-based Pacer deducted from their wages for the truck leases, insurance, vehicle maintenance, fuel and other out-of-pocket expenses. That judgement, returned on Wednesday after a 14-day non-jury trial, came to just over $2 million collectively, the same sum previously awarded to the seven truckers by a state labour commissioner and appealed to the court by the company.
Alvin Gomez, the lead plaintiff's attorney, said on Friday the ruling would bolster litigation already brought against several other trucking firms and for additional wage-theft lawsuits he planned to file next week. "This is a tremendous victory in the fight against misclassification," Gomez said, adding that the ruling had the potential to "forever reshape the United States trucking industry."