FedEx loses appeal in driver employment case

worldwide

Well-Known Member
FedEx Ground lost its appeal of a $5.3 million verdict in California that would make independent contractor drivers full-time employees. A California appeals court rejected the company's claim that a trial court judge erred in deciding in December 2005 that the FedEx Ground workers should be accorded full-time status. More than 200 drivers sued FedEx Ground, a unit of FedEx Corp., in Los Angeles state court, claiming it treats independent contractors like full-time employees while denying them full pay and benefits. Oakland, Calif. attorney Lynn Faris, who represents the drivers who sued FedEx, said the total court-awarded damages has increased to about $11 million.

In denying the appeal from the December 2005 decision, the Appeals Court found that the California drivers are actually employees, and that "... the work performed by the drivers is wholly integrated into FedEx's operation. The drivers look like FedEx employees, act like FedEx employees, are paid like FedEx employees, and receive many employee benefits." Citing the trial court's decision, the appellate court noted, "The essence of the trial court's statement of decision is that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck." The Court also commented that, "FedEx's control over every exquisite detail of the drivers' performance, including the color of their socks and the style of their hair, supports the trial court's conclusion that the drivers are employees... "
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
Maybe the APWA can try to organize them now. I wish Fedex could be unionized, it would force them to raise rates and level the playing field. The problem is to get the workers to risk their jobs and do just that. So far, the IBT has done a poor job at this.
 

DS

Fenderbender
This decision is HUGE.If this snowballed it could change everything,and I agree with scratch that it can only be good for UPS.What about the DHL guys,they may well use this court decision to do the same thing.I hope they do,and we can get back some lost customers.
 

Harley Rider

34 yrs & done!
I've been hoping that FedEx would lose this decision. If the guys are smart they will hop on the union bandwagon now. From management point of view I would think that if they are going to have to pay them union wages they might as well buy the ground drivers out and have complete control. There are several FDX ground drivers here that own more than one route and subcontract them. I am sure they are part of the ones that would not want the union to come in after they have invested time and money getting their equipment paid off and starting to realize a profit. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.
 

browned_out

Well-Known Member
:laugh: I think your gonna see a trend across the nation, as more courts will use this as a precedent in other lawsuits. As this happens Fedex's cost will greatly increase and so there rates will have to increase.
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
brownedout....maybe that's why the FDX ground CEO sold 9800 shares of stock......take the $10.5 mil. and run.
 

hoser

Industrial Slob
Maybe the APWA can try to organize them now. I wish Fedex could be unionized, it would force them to raise rates and level the playing field. The problem is to get the workers to risk their jobs and do just that. So far, the IBT has done a poor job at this.
What the IBT did wrong was thinking they could organize FX Express employees. If UPS wants to be on the same level playing field, they need to run their business the same way as FX; treating employees with respect.
 

FedexExEmployee

Well-Known Member
they need to run their business the same way as FX; treating employees with respect.

You can't mean what I think you mean. Please don't tell me you think Fedex treats it's employees with respect.

Fedex does, however, treat it's employees like a word that sounds like respect. That would be > insect
 
F

fedex express employee

Guest
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
they got what they asked for. now there contractors
The FedEx mass firing

of over 1000 single-route truck drivers at Ground/Home Delivery terminals
in California is an appalling abuse of the legal process and demonstrates
the company's rank indifference to its employees. This action is clearly in
retaliation to the class action law suits that assert that FedEx's
misclassification of those drivers is illegal. FedEx seeks to not only
punish the California drivers by eliminating their livelihoods, but it also
intends to have a chilling effect on drivers across the nation. Refusing to
accept the recent determination of the California Court of Appeals that its
drivers are legally employees and provide them the rights and benefits to
which they are entitled, FedEx instead says to them, "you're fired."

These drivers are among the 12,000 drivers in the nationwide class of
drivers challenging FedEx's illegal independent contractor model, recently
found to violate California law. Similar cases are pending in over 30 other
states.

Taking the law into its own hands, FedEx has illegally retaliated
against innocent workers who simply exercised their right to go to court to
redress FedEx's illegal system which denies them every employment right to
which they are entitled. FedEx's aggressive action also violates every
principle of fairness and decency. No matter how FedEx spins this, the
reality is that it has announced the firing of every single-route driver in
California.

Plaintiffs' counsel Lynn Rossman Faris said, "The drivers are stunned
by this retaliation which was surely intended to send a message to all the
other drivers in America that they better not step out of line." Rossman
Faris added that she and her co-counsel are reviewing their legal options.

End of Statement
FedEx Ground lost its appeal of a $5.3 million verdict in California that would make independent contractor drivers full-time employees. A California appeals court rejected the company's claim that a trial court judge erred in deciding in December 2005 that the FedEx Ground workers should be accorded full-time status. More than 200 drivers sued FedEx Ground, a unit of FedEx Corp., in Los Angeles state court, claiming it treats independent contractors like full-time employees while denying them full pay and benefits. Oakland, Calif. attorney Lynn Faris, who represents the drivers who sued FedEx, said the total court-awarded damages has increased to about $11 million.

In denying the appeal from the December 2005 decision, the Appeals Court found that the California drivers are actually employees, and that "... the work performed by the drivers is wholly integrated into FedEx's operation. The drivers look like FedEx employees, act like FedEx employees, are paid like FedEx employees, and receive many employee benefits." Citing the trial court's decision, the appellate court noted, "The essence of the trial court's statement of decision is that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck." The Court also commented that, "FedEx's control over every exquisite detail of the drivers' performance, including the color of their socks and the style of their hair, supports the trial court's conclusion that the drivers are employees... "
 
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