Owner-operator truck drivers this week sued one of the largest drayage operators at the Port of New York and New Jersey, claiming the company improperly classified them as independent contractors instead of employees, the Journal of Commerce reports.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New Jersey Superior Court in Newark, represents a new tack in a Teamsters-backed campaign to classify owner-operators as employees who would be eligible for union representation.
The drivers claim Ironbound Express wrongly deducted workers’ compensation premiums from their pay. “You can’t, as an employee, have your workers’ compensation premiums deducted from your pay,” said David Tykulsker, the drivers’ attorney.
A separate lawsuit challenging drivers’ classification as independent contractors was filed against Ironbound in U.S. District Court in April. The federal lawsuit claims owner-operators who haul containers to and from the port are under company direction and should be considered employees.
“I believe these actions will inspire several lawsuits by other drivers at other trucking companies,” said Fred Potter, director of the Teamsters union’s port division.
Ironbound CEO Frank Borland was not immediately available for comment but was quoted in the Newark Star-Ledger as saying owner-operator agreements that include deductions for workers’ compensation premiums are “a long-accepted practice which is expressly permitted by the (federal) Department of Transportation regulations.”
Potter spoke along with Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., and Newark City Councilman Ronald Rice at a sidewalk rally attended by about 30 drivers and supporters.
Payne praised the drivers for being “willing to stand up here and try to shine a light on a broken port trucking system that allows their hard-earned dollars to be stolen from them.”
Rice said Newark officials would do what they can to apply pressure on behalf of drivers. Efforts to allow local authorities to pre-empt federal regulation of port trucking have been blocked by lawsuits in California and have struggled to gain traction in Congress.