Orange County Employment Lawyers Blog
It’s been more than a decade since FedEx was first accused of driver misclassification by drivers for the company. The cases quickly began to pile up – ultimately some 12,000 from 20 states. 
As the multi-district litigation was combined into one action that crawled forward, a whole new generation of employee misclassification lawsuits were filed against other companies.
It’s only now, in 2016, that the company is proposing a settlement with drivers whom it formerly called independent contractors. The allegation has long been that the company hired them to work as “independent contractors.” They were paid as such, but they weren’t treated as such. In considering whether the classification was proper, courts were analyzing the level of control the company had over the workers, including facts like:
- Drivers were required to drive trucks that were branded with the FedEx logo;
- Drivers were required to wear FedEx uniforms;
- Drivers had to use FedEx scanners;
- Drivers weren’t free to turn down jobs if they wanted to keep working for the company.