Court Weighs Owner-Operator Status

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to step into the murky area of whether owner-operators are employees or independent contractors.

The justices will review a lower court’s ruling that was handed down in February 1998. That decision held that an owner-operator leased to Universal Am-Cam of Warren, Mich., was an employee, as far as state workers’ compensation laws were concerned.

Robert Digges Jr., deputy general counsel for American Trucking Associations, said the problem with the lower court’s ruling was that it was not based on the traditional tests for determining an employee’s status. He said instead, it was based on federal regulations that the court interpreted to mean that owner-operators relinquish their independent status when they sign a contract with a carrier.

“That is just absurd because if that were true there would be no independent contractors in the trucking industry,” said Digges.

Digges said ATA and the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association will file a brief with the high court in support of Am-Cam. He said it will point out that the Interstate Commerce Commission Act specifically stated that the federal regulations upon which the case was decided were not intended to affect whether a person was an employee or not.

For the full story, see the April 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.