FedEx Legal Woes Mount as Class-Action Status Now Granted in 20 States Over Company's Embattled Independent Contractor Model

SOUTH BEND, Ind., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- With class-action certification now granted in 20 states as well as nationwide, lawyers for FedEx Ground/Home Delivery drivers are preparing to file motions starting April 11 for summary judgment they say will prove the company has illegally misclassified as independent contractors thousands of workers and deprived them collectively of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost wages, benefits and expenses, according to attorney Lynn Rossman Faris, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs.

Faris, who brought the first of the spate of misclassification-related lawsuits in 1999 on behalf of California drivers, said last week's overwhelmingly favorable class-certification ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Miller is significant to every one of the 25,000 class members in every state and throughout the United States. Tennessee, corporate headquarters of FedEx, and Pennsylvania, home to FedEx Ground/Home Delivery, are among the states in which Judge Miller granted class certification.

"This is a clear-cut win for the drivers. You cannot overlook in the court's 165-page opinion the fact that the Court certified every one of the plaintiff's claims, including claims for fraud, wage-and-hour violations, overtime, and our claim to rescind the illegal and bogus independent contractor agreement with the drivers," said Faris.

She said the FedEx reaction to this latest legal setback once again demonstrates how the company shamelessly continues to try to mitigate and misrepresent the litigation and the objectives of the thousands of drivers who have been victimized in the name of corporate profits.

"Even in the small number of states where class-certification has not been granted, our drivers are covered under the nationwide class claims that, among other arguments, assert their illegal classification as contractors and right to be compensated for benefits they would have received as employees.

Faris also noted that in the weeks ahead FedEx will be appearing before the Internal Revenue Service which last year ruled that the company owes the government nearly $320 million in back taxes for 2002 related to its misclassification practices. The agency at the time also announced it is investigating other years for possible violations.