FedEx contract drivers deserve overtime pay, lawyer says
FedEx illegally denied contract drivers overtime pay and treated them like full-time employees without the benefits, their lawyer said at trial.
FedEx illegally denied contract drivers overtime pay and treated them like full-time employees without the benefits, their lawyer said at trial.
The more than 320 contract drivers covered by the class- action, or group, lawsuit in Washington state court, should receive time-and-a-half pay for overtime, said Rebecca Roe, a lawyer for the drivers, as the trial opened on 3 March in Seattle.
She said the contractors, who owned so-called single routes, had no control over delivery prices, their schedules, the look of their vehicles or their personal appearance, she said.
“Some managers went so far as to go through the interior of the driver’s van on a daily basis,” Roe told jurors.
FedEx also faces a nationwide class action in federal court in South Bend, Indiana, that includes former and current workers. Drivers also claim in that case that the Memphis-based company treats them as full-time workers except for pay and benefits.
US District judge Robert Miller in South Bend is considering FedEx’s request to dismiss the federal case before trial. The drivers seek $1bn in damages and changes to the contractor model plus retirement benefits and back pay.
