California Court Stalls Independent Contractor Truck Driver Classification Law

A federal judge recently issued a temporary restraining order against the state of California regarding Assembly Bill 5, a law regulating how trucking companies may classify independent contractors.

Judge Halts Law Regulating Independent Contractor Truck Driver Jobs

Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1, 2020 until the bill was stalled by a court order from a California judge. Judge Roger T. Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California issued the restraining order in order to prevent the bill from being instituted until a lawsuit brought by the California Trucking Association is resolved.

The California Trucking Association (CTA) filed its lawsuit against California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in March, 2019, claiming that, if passed, AB5 would have a profound impact on the motor carrier industry. Under AB5, trucking companies would be required to meet several requirements in order to classify workers as independent contractors, rather than employees. As approximately 70,000 truck drivers in California are classified as independent contractors, AB5 may dramatically change the industry. According to the CTA’s lawsuit, AB5 would make it impractical or impossible for the association’s members to continue providing interstate trucking services. In late December, 2019, the CTA filed a motion to delay AB5 from taking effect until the association’s lawsuit has been resolved. The motion was approved and resulted in a restraining order after the court found that the CTA had met its burden to prove that it is likely to succeed in its lawsuit, and that the requested staying of the bill was in the public interest.

About Assembly Bill 5

Assembly Bill 5 is a bill regulating the way that companies may classify their workers. Under AB5, employers must meet several requirements in order to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. These requirements are often referred to as the ABC test, which is made up of three parts. The part of the ABC test especially worrisome to the CTA and trucking companies is part B.

While part A requires that workers must be free from the direction and control of their employer, and part C requires that the worker must be engaged in an independently established trade or occupation doing the same work that they are performing for their hiring entity, part B may be the hardest part of the ABC test for many companies to pass.

Part B of the test states that a person may only be classified as an independent contractor if they perform work that is outside of the hiring entity’s usual course of business. This part of the test demands that independent contractors cannot perform work that is a core part of the company’s industry, such as workers who drive for ride-sharing companies, or truckers who transport goods for trucking companies. Under the B section of the ABC test, these workers would have to be classified as employees, and entitled to the legal rights and privileges afforded to employees.

If you are an independent contractor truck driver and believe you may have been misclassified by your employer, you may be eligible to hire a qualified attorney and file a class action lawsuit. Victims of employee misclassification who file lawsuits may be able to recoup financial compensation and damages.

The CTA’s Independent Contractor Truck Driver Lawsuit is Case No.3:18-cv-02458-BEN-BLM, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California.

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If you have worked as a contract truck driver and believe your carrier has failed to pay you minimum wage or overtime, or otherwise might not have honored a contract with you, you may qualify to file a truck driver lawsuit or class action lawsuit.

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