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California Labour Commissioner awards US$6.9 million to striking drivers

THE California Labour Commissioner has determined that 38 drivers at leading port trucking company Pacific 9 Transportation, which hauls containers from Los Angeles and Long Beach are in fact employees, not independent contractors.

The commissioner ordered Pac 9 to pay them nearly US$6.9 million in wages. The landmark ruling marks the first time that the Labour Commissioner has scheduled back-to-back hearings for individual wage claims at a single company.

After determining that the drivers were employees, the hearing officer made an average individual award of $182,270 with the largest award being $386,703.

Specifically, Pac 9 owed the drivers for unlawful deductions, liquidated damages, reimbursable business expenses, paid meal and rest periods, interest and waiting time penalties.

This comes as Pac 9 drivers continue their sixth - and indefinite - strike to protest unfair labour practices, including pervasive misclassification at the company, which began on July 21.

"We have finally had our day in court and we are extremely grateful that the government has realised that it isn't just a handful of drivers that are misclassified - it is all of us," said PAC 9 driver Daniel Linares.

Said Teamsters union vice president Fred Potter: "Misclassification, wage theft, and tax fraud has infested the port trucking industry, and the drivers are grateful to the California Labour Commissioner for scheduling back-to-back hearings in these cases."

In March 2014, after an investigation, Region 21 of the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) announced a settlement agreement with Pac 9 that paved the way to unionisation for its drivers.

In that settlement agreement Pac 9 agreed that its drivers were in fact misclassified and would be recognised as legal employees, therefore entitled to federal labour law protections under the National Labour Relations Act (NLRA).

The union said Pac 9 subsequently violated the terms of the settlement agreement by continuing their misclassification scheme and the NRLB withdrew the agreement.

In July, Pac 9 drivers began their sixth strike to protest ongoing labour law violations - and have remained on strike ever since.

The California Division of Labour Standards Enforcement (DLSE) began a series of 38 back-to-back "Wage and Hour" hearings for the 38 "independent contractor" drivers from Pac 9.

The hearings were held despite the company's efforts to stop the hearings, filing two separate and unsuccessful motions in Superior Court, appealing those rulings all the way to the Superior Court to try and stop the hearings.

On December 14, the DLSE ruled in favour of the drivers, then on December 18, 2015, a California Superior Court judge denied Pac 9's petition to compel arbitration.

On December 14, the California Labour Commissioner issued an Order, Decision, or Award (ODA) in the case of wage claims filed by 38 drivers for Pacific 9 Transportation (Pac 9).

In the 299-page written opinion, the Labour Commissioner determined that all 38 of the drivers were employees, not independent contractors and orders Pac 9 to pay its drivers $6.9 million.