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A three-judge federal appeals panel has ruled that FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery drivers – 363 drivers in Oregon and 2,300 drivers in California – are “employees” under labor law, not “independent contractors.”
If the Aug. 27 rulings, by a panel of 9th Circuit Court judges in Portland, Ore., are upheld, Fed Ex must treat the workers as employees, paying the employers’ share of Social Security and Medicare withholding taxes as well as workers’ compensation.
It also means both classes of FedEx drivers are able to organize into a union. “Independent contractors,” who are supposed to be self-employed, are not.
The Teamsters are carrying on a long campaign to organize FedEx drivers of all types nationwide, but it’s hampered by FedEx’s success at misclassifying them as independent contractors. The union was not involved in the California and Oregon class actions, but welcomed the judges’ rulings, spokesman Galen Munroe said. FedEx vowed to appeal the rulings.
In virtually identical opinions – only the names of the states and their laws were changed – appellate Judge William Fletcher said FedEx controlled virtually every aspect of the drivers’ jobs: Their uniforms, their routes, their hours, their schedules, their trucks, and so on. But the drivers had to buy the gas and insurance.
That’s not enough to make them independent contractors, Fletcher and his two colleagues said, reversing a lower court ruling for FedEx.