Not only is the contract vague, but fedex has policy handbooks that tell how they interpret it. Under the old IC contract, one phrase comes to mid. The contract says that fedex intends to make 'full use' of contractors vehicle to supply contractor with sufficient deliveries. Their policy it that full use means whatever they put on your van until it is full whether it takes you 5 hours or 15 hours. That was the HD contract. My interpretation was full use means full time, or 8 hours per day unless some other arrangement. A contract is supposed to describe the intent of both parties, but fedex hides the full intent in their handbooks only management can see. I was regularly sent out with enough to last 15 hours in rural mountainous area, including driving up Mount Ranier to the park headquarters 30 miles up a road, and worse. If I had a smaller vehicle, I would have been better off. Under law, interpretations made by the party who didn't draft the contract are supposed to be binding if a reasonable person could agree. Problem is that if you hire an attorney to make fedex follow your reasonable interpretation, they won't renew. In that, they have the absolute power to fire, and can fire even before expiration for no cause at all. You have recourse in going to expensive arbitration with your winnings very limited. But FEDEX CAN fire you at will, for no cause.
Express handing resi deliveries to Ground
- Thread starter FedGT
- Start date
Controlling the wages has almost nothing to do with it. It is the control over the process of the work, instead of just the net result. Even regular fedex express drivers are paid varying rates , as are most employees based on arbitrary rates decided not by the corporation, but by individual managers who decide who is worthy of a raise, or isn't. Fedex requires the ISP hire employees, not contractors, and nothing in the drivers job has changed since I was found to be an employee. Not only was I ruled to be a FEDEX employee, but the drivers I hired to drive my supplemental and 2nd contacted route were found to be fedex employees, and fedex had to pay back taxes to the state.
It will be fine
Well-Known Member
If you say so. How long has it been since you contracted with FedEx? 15 years? Think you might be a bit out of touch with how things are now?
Was there some kind of “no admission of fault” in your case? Because if there wasn’t, I find it hard to believe lawyers and Fedex drivers didn’t drive entire fleets through that door. And if what you say is true, I’m very surprised that lawyers didn’t drum up huge amounts of business.
But what has changed regarding the fundamental nature of the contracts? To what extent if any have contractors been granted broader access to due process of law including the freedom and autonomy that normally accompanies that of a true independent contractor?
OrioN
double tap o da horn dooshbag
<shrugs>
All I hear from subcontractor management is "this is how FedEx wants us to do this & that, or our contract will be in jeopardy"
When I returned to the terminal near me, I've heard they lost the lucrative neighborhoods that I want to service (near my home) to other subcontractors due to poor service#s... blah
All I hear from subcontractor management is "this is how FedEx wants us to do this & that, or our contract will be in jeopardy"
When I returned to the terminal near me, I've heard they lost the lucrative neighborhoods that I want to service (near my home) to other subcontractors due to poor service#s... blah
No admission of fault?????? What the hell are you talking about?????? And lawyers drummed up a giant class action, and fedex has paid out close to $1 billion in settlements.
Employment laws regarding classification of workers has changed little. I can almost guarantee that fedex is already quietly settling complaint from drivers to avoid going to court. If they settle like they have done with the class actions, there is no legal precedent set. By settling out of court before a case gets decided on in a courtroom, they avoid a court finding regarding status. Some seem to think that a settlement means fedex is now doing everything that is without question in accordance with employment laws. All a settlement is about is PAST claims, not current or future claims.
Based on your original suit?
I guess I was under the impression that your suit was more recent.
I’m also surprised that they left something like that as a class action. If they found drivers to be employees of Fedex, the government would become a plaintiff for back taxes etc., wouldn’t they? And that would be for ALL drivers, not only the class action parties. Not disputing your account, just perplexed by the government’s response or lack thereof.
No. Based on state law, the state would have needed to prosecute each case on an individual basis because fedex may have treated each 'contractor' differently. I do know for a fact that other 'contractors' in other states were also awarded unemployment benefits as employees. And the attorneys did not base the class action on my claim, but my win against fedex drew the attention of the firm which was already in the process of deciding whether to be active in the class action. Documents and testimony from FEDEX in my case gave them confidence that they had a winning case. Prior to my claim, all they really had was the contract itself, and driver/contractor statements. They were able to take what fedex used in my case and apply it to the class action. I was specifically told by the state official who worked with me that my case was not a precedent for all other contractors based on state law that required individuals to each present the specifics of their own cases. FEDEX did something after that to make sure that contractors paid the state employment taxes and stopped allowing 'contractors' to sub'contract their work. And as long as the state was collecting taxes, their interest in getting into a lawsuit with FEDEX dissipated. After all, it was only the taxes that they were losing.
I don't know if the state ever went after back taxes they would have owed for me. I know they had to pay for the unemployment claims me and my drivers filed. But again, something about state law limited the states ability to make claims for people who didn't file themselves.
If the class action had gone to a jury trial instead of a settlement, it would possibly have made it possible for the state to go after back taxes, because a jury trial would have found legally that all drivers/contractors were fedex employees. My case found ME to be an employee under state law.
This is just an example of why fedex wants to settle cases rather than have trials. FEDEX got off easy by settling. There was NO final legal finding that the contract was actually an employment contract.
And there has been no ruling that the current contract is or is not an employment contract, with ISPs being employee managers vs real independent businesses, with the ISP being duped into investing his/her own funds to provide the service. It didn't matter in my case that I had purchased multiple vehicles or had multiple people working for me. I was still under fedex's almost total direction.
It was only settled a few years ago. And I got another check just a couple weeks ago for almost $200 and don't even know why. It was suppose to be one of the final steps, but I just read that there is still more action going on, with another $200(?) million to be paid by fedex under the suit filed originally in 2004.
59 Dano
I just want to make friends!
There are state and federal laws punishing people for harming fetuses because they are recognized as separate victims of crime in addition to their mothers. Your slavery analogy is ridiculous, as is your self-defense analogy.
59 Dano
I just want to make friends!
The person taking a morning after pill has no idea if conception occurred.
Anyhoodle, why is it so important to be able to kill children?
59 Dano
I just want to make friends!
Oh, don't we know it!
It is legal for a woman to abort a fetus. Your statement is ridiculous. And forcing a woman to do something she does not want to do with threats of punishment is slavery.
Murder trumps slavery. That is if it actually was slavery.
But whether aborting a fetus is murder is really a religious question. When does personhood begin????? But a full grown woman is no doubt a person. A fetus is definitely not a separate individual until after separation.
Fred's Myth
Nonhyphenated American
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
