New California Law Will Harm Contract Truck Drivers, Says Trade Association

The California Trucking Association recently filed a lawsuit over a new gig economy labor law, which they say will hurt tens of thousands of contract truck drivers.

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new labor law providing sweeping wage and benefit protections to approximately 1 million workers in California. The law was primarily meant to address the much-discussed problem of benefits and protections for gig economy workers like Uber and Lyft drivers. According to Newsom, these workers are classified as independent contractors, but lose the essential benefits of employees like minimum wage, paid sick leave, and health insurance, NPR reports.

“The hollowing out of our middle-class has been 40 years in the making, and the need to create lasting economic security for our workface demands action,” Newsom wrote in a letter to the California Assembly.

Essentially, this law makes it more difficult for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees, protecting workers from being misclassified as independent contractors and therefore denied certain employee benefits and protections.

The law says companies should rely on a three-prong test to determine which classification to give workers. In order to be considered an independent contractor under the new law, a worker must meet the following criteria:

• Free from control of the company
• Perform work “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business”
• Engage in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity

For workers who want to be considered independent contractors, this law could make things difficult for them.

According to the California Trucking Association, the legislation violates federal law. Additionally, some 70,000 contract truck drivers would be negatively impacted. The association argued that many of these truck drivers would have to abandon investments of $150,000 in their trucks, and would also be deprived of the right to set their own schedules as independent contractors.

“Independent truckers are typically experienced drivers who have previously worked as employees and have, by choice, struck out on their own. We should not deprive them of that choice,” Shawn Yadon, CEO of the California Trucking Association said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.

Other workers that may be affected by this law include construction workers, janitors, and home health aides, among others.

Though Newsom signed the bill in September, the law isn’t set to actually take effect until Jan. 1.

According to the office of Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, who sponsored the bill, this is the first such lawsuit to be filed over it, however, major gig economy companies Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash told the Los Angeles Times that they plan to negotiate different rules for their drivers, but if that negotiation is unsuccessful, they plan to spend millions on a 2020 ballot measure to oppose the law.

Can I File a Wage and Hour Lawsuit?

If you work or have worked as a truck driver and believe the company you work for has failed to pay proper minimum wage and/or overtime, you may be able to file a lawsuit and pursue compensation.

Join a Free Trucker Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

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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