Court Upholds Independent Contractor Status in Massachusetts Case
A federal court ruled that Massachusetts courier drivers are independent contractors, turning away a bid by the state to classify the workers as employees.
The latest case in ongoing legal battles over the status of workers pitted the Massachusetts Delivery Association against the state’s Attorney General.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper’s ruling said the Massachusetts’s Independent Contractor Law was preempted by federal law included in the Federal Aviation Administration Act of 1994.
The state law “has a direct connection to the services themselves and thus more than the mere employment relationship between [courier] Xpressman and its couriers is at issue here,” she said in the order that concluded the state law affected Xpressman’s prices, rates and routes,” Judge Casper wrote.
The ruling was the latest in decades of battling over worker status. Earlier this year, FedEx Corp. decided to settle a California worker status case for $228 million. While that case was settled, FedEx has prevailed in more than 100 other court battles.
Another high-profile contractor case, also involving federal pre-emption involved American Trucking Associations and the Port of Los Angeles that in 2006 mandated that drivers entering the port must be employees. After years of legal wrangling, ATA won.
The Massachusetts case began in 2010 when the trade group asked the District Court to block enforcement of the state’s contractor law. The court upheld the state’s position, prompting an appeal that was granted by the First Circuit. The Appeals Court remanded the case to the District Court last year, leading to the July 8 ruling.
“This ruling is a victory for everyone in the motor carrier industry that relies on independent contractors to satisfy fluctuating demand,” said a statement from MDA President Aaron Driben. “Had the 2013 ruling been affirmed it would have had a severe impact on our labor costs and force many of our members to either increase their prices to consumers or go out of business.”
