LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- A referee appointed by the state
Superior Court awarded current and former drivers of FedEx Ground about $14.4
million in reimbursed job-related expenses and interest. The award is about $9
million more than the trial court originally awarded in 2005 when it ruled the
drivers were illegally classified as independent contractors instead of
employees and entitled to compensation.
This latest ruling in Estrada vs. FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. was
issued by William J. Cahill, a retired California Superior Court Judge acting
as a court-appointed Referee to decide the issue of additional driver
compensation and additional interest owed. He reviewed thousands of expense
records provided by FedEx drivers, including company records, from the
approximately 200 drivers. The documents detailed expenditures for a wide
range of business expenses, including fuel, vehicle maintenance costs, and
liability and workers compensation insurance, rental of package scanners, and
uniform rental and maintenance. Of the $7 million in claims asserted by the
plaintiffs, FedEx (NYSE: FDX) objected to about $1 million in expenses. The
referee overruled virtually all of FedEx's complaints and denied only $32,000
of the $7 million in expenses claimed due to issues related to the
documentation.
Lynn Rossman Faris, Esq., of Leonard Carder, LLP, of Oakland, California,
lead counsel for the California drivers, hailed the ruling. "Tony Estrada,
Jeff Morgan and all the drivers who have fought for justice for nearly 10
years now have been vindicated and will recover the money they paid for
FedEx's expenses." She added, "It has been a long, hard fight and we can
finally say that a definitive end is in sight, at least in this California
case."
Faris is also co-lead counsel in approximately 60 other state
misclassification cases (covering 40 states) that have been consolidated in
the Federal multi-district case, known as the FedEx Ground Employment
Practices Litigation in South Bend, Indiana. "The California drivers are
paving the way for all of those FedEx Ground drivers nationwide who have been
victimized by the company's illegal misclassification scheme," added Faris.
Nationwide notice to over 27,000 former and current FedEx Ground drivers was
given in June and July, with fewer than 150 (less than one-half of one
percent) opting out. "FedEx has always claimed that the drivers agree with the
company, but this miniscule number of opt-outs demonstrates that FedEx has
been wrong in its public statements, just as it was in its California appeal,"
Faris said.
SOURCE Leonard Carder, LLP