Los Angeles, CACalifornia labor lawsuits, alleging California employers violate federal and California state labor law, often involve employees claiming they were misclassified so the employer can avoid paying overtime wages. One way that an employer can violate California labor law is to misclassify employees as contractors, which is what one lawsuit against a California trucking company alleges has happened.
The Los Angeles Times (5/15/13) reports that truck drivers for a southern California trucking company have filed a lawsuit against the company alleging they were misclassified as independent contractors so their employer could avoid paying them overtime and giving them breaks.
The plaintiffs allege that rather than being independent contractors they acted as employees by driving trucks owned by the company. The Times article notes that five lawsuits were filed by Attorney General Jerry Brown against California trucking companies, alleging they violated state labor laws and misclassified employees as independent contractors.
Meanwhile, three contractors have been fined a total of $1.8 million for violations of public works regulations. A news release issued by California Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su noted that the companies willfully violated labor law and affected 94 workers in the process.
“Let these enforcement actions serve as notice that wage theft - whether it be through nonpayment of overtime, failure to pay proper prevailing wage, underreporting of hours worked, bounced checks used to pay working people, and cheating on apprenticeship training funds - will not be tolerated in this state,” said Labor Commissioner Su.
One contractor was ordered to pay almost $550,000 in wages and $650,000 in fines for not properly paying employees. According to the labor commissioner, the company also falsified documents and intimidated workers in an effort to prevent the commissioner’s investigation. A second contractor was ordered to pay $275,000 in wages and almost $125,000 in fines after being found to pay much less than the prevailing wage for its project, and failing to pay proper overtime.
The third contractor was ordered to pay more than $180,000 in wages and $30,000 in penalties for misclassifying workers in an attempt to pay them less, for underreporting hours and for issuing checks without enough funds.