Misclassification as Labor Law Violation Teed up in Ports Case

National Labor Relations Board prosecutors have opened a scenario that could reverse Trump-period board precedent and make misclassifying an worker as an impartial contractor a standalone unfair labor observe.

Five trucking, warehousing and logistics corporations in Southern California violated federal labor legislation by designating motorists as unbiased contractors, NLRB legal professionals in Los Angeles alleged final week. The providers perform alongside one another as a single integrated organization underneath the manage of Universal Logistics Holdings Inc., company legal professionals reported.

Misclassifying those people staff members obstructed them from participating in legally shielded exercise and gave them the impression they are not included by federal labor regulation, according to the grievance issued versus the corporations.

Personnel classification is one of the most essential issues in workplace law. No matter whether employees are workers with rights and protections below a panoply of condition and federal laws can have big implications for organizations and personnel. Misclassification is a front-line authorized problem in the gig financial system.

The case could give the Democratic-bulk NLRB the option to reconsider its 2019 selection in Velox Express, which turned down earning misclassification itself a violation of the Countrywide Labor Relations Act.

The companies’ lawyer, Daniel Adlong of Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C., didn’t right away reply to telephone and email requests for remark.

Interrogating, Threatening, Retaliating

The criticism stems from a collection of rates that the Global Brotherhood of Teamsters submitted in 2021 towards Universal Logistics, Container Connection, Common Intermodal Providers, Southern Counties Convey, and Universal Administration Products and services. The drivers work out of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Seashore.

NLRB prosecutors also accused the organizations of various other unfair labor methods related to drivers’ union functions, like interrogating, threatening, and retaliating from them.

Agency lawyers went outside of trying to get back pay, reinstatement, and other the conventional treatments for unfair labor techniques. They also requested for an order forcing the companies to reclassify motorists as workers, pay out consequential damages for resulting from misclassification and other labor law violations, and other improved therapies.

“With this highly effective grievance, the NLRB has put actual enamel into our country’s foundational labor legal guidelines and place ULH on recognize that no organization, no subject how massive or powerful, is earlier mentioned the regulation,” Eric Tate, an offical with a Teamsters affiliate in Southern California, explained in a assertion.

The circumstance is Deco Logistics d/b/a Container Relationship, N.L.R.B. Reg’l Dir., Circumstance 21-CA-272323, Criticism issued 3/17/22.