ATLANTA — A handful of truck drivers steered for the Capitol instead of their usual routes Wednesday out of the Port of Savannah on a quest to move some legislation instead of freight.
They are looking for passage of Senate Bill 401 and SB 402 which would make Georgia’s laws on worker classification match the federal provisions and impose stiff penalties for violations. That’s because the workers say they’re victims of companies classifying them as independent contractors paid by the job instead of as hourly paid employees with benefits.
After paying for the tractor-trailer trucks they lease, fuel and other expenses, the drivers say they’re earning peanuts.
“Sometimes I work a whole week, full time, and take home way less than the minimum wage. It makes me feel like a prisoner to work so hard and never catch up or get ahead because they just keep taking money out of my paycheck for their business expenses,” said Carol Cauley, a driver for eight years with C & K Trucking.
The drivers’ complaints have triggered an investigation in January by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division of two companies, C & K Trucking and California Cartage Co. No one from California Cartage accepted an offer to comment before deadline.
Sean McShane, vice president of C & K, said the company follows the letter of the law.
“They are clearly contractors who have the ability to work with multiple companies, and they are not limited to working with us, and therefore, we consider them — and always have considered them — independent contractors,” he said.
But court cases have shown that there isn’t such a clear line between what is an employee and what is an independent contractor, notes Michael D’Aquino, spokesman for the Labor Department.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has, on a number of occasions, indicated that there is no single rule or test for determining whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee for purposes of the (Fair Labor Standards Act),” he said. “The court has held that it is the total activity or situation which controls.”
Two Democratic state senators, Steve Henson of Tucker and Nan Orrock of Atlanta, aim to provide a little more certainty in Georgia law.
“Hard-working Georgians shouldn’t have to pay for companies’ unlawful business practices,” Orrock said at a press conference sponsored by the Teamsters.
The union argues there are several ways taxpayers have to pick up the costs of truckers being misclassified, such as hospital visits because they can’t afford health insurance. Employers don’t pay workers compensation insurance for accidents or unemployment insurance for layoffs either on independent contractors because they are considered to be in business for themselves.
A study issued Feb. 19 by the National Employment Law Project and other organized-labor think tanks concluded that 75,000 truckers at ports across the country are in the same situation and that they each lose more than $5,000 monthly in compensation they would have gotten as employees. The groups say that totals $1.4 billion annually on a national basis.
In Georgia, the study estimates that 3,936 of the 6,000 port drivers are misclassified. The authors calculate the difference to the state’s unemployment insurance system totals $1.04 million yearly.
For trucker John Jackson, there’s no doubt in his mind he’s constrained by the rules of an employee rather than the freedoms of a small-business owner. His agreement with California Cartage means he can be fined for a late delivery, having bald tires or getting a ticket from the Department of Transportation.
“That’s why we’re fighting the power, to get a voice,” he said.
Jackson is profiled in the national report. It notes that he has driven trucks at the port for 23 years, yet he often pockets as little as $450 for a 40-hour week.
“It’s hard to live off of that, much less maintain my truck,” the report quoted him as saying. “We want to live a good life just like the longshoremen who work on the inside of the port loading and unloading from the cargo ships. They have health and retirement benefits, which allow them to have a better future.”
The longshoremen are represented by a labor union, and they are classified as employees.
An odd quirk of the law means that the drivers can’t get together and demand better contracts under federal law as long as they are independent contractors. Federal anti-trust laws prohibit businesses from colluding to control the market. Yet, if the drivers are employees, then they can join a union and launch a coordinated job action.
According to Jackson, the freight companies, which are also prohibited from collusion, must be working together because none offer any better contracts.
“I believe they all conspire,” he said.
Henson and Orrock’s bills were introduced Feb. 21. While some bills sponsored by Republican leaders introduced later than that have been on a fast track for passage, those by members of the Democratic minority are not likely to make much progress no matter how early they are dropped into the hopper.
Labor officials in Atlanta are realistic enough to recognize that. But they also note that a Republican state just as unfriendly to labor unions, Texas, passed similar legislation.
“We’re trying to deal with something that is costing taxpayers,” said Ben Speight, the Teamsters’ organizing director in Atlanta. “We’re at the Capitol trying to make people aware.”