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Firm owes shuttle drivers millions, claims lawsuit alleging labor law violations
By Jon Ortiz - jortiz@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Story appeared in BUSINESS section, Page D3
A shuttle company that serves Sacramento International Airport is under fire from its current and former California drivers who allege it is violating state labor laws and has cheated them out of million of dollars.
In a class-action lawsuit served Monday on SuperShuttle International Inc., the van drivers allege that the company for at least four years has misclassified them as "independent contractors" or "franchisees."
The designations allowed the company to get around state labor laws governing minimum wage and overtime pay, the suit alleges, and unfairly shifts operating expenses to the drivers.
SuperShuttle did not return calls seeking comment Monday.
The 28-page lawsuit filed in Alameda Superior Court in Oakland earlier this month claims that SuperShuttle, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., controls its business so tightly that it is an employer and the drivers are employees.
The company's operating model, the lawsuit alleges, illegally forces van drivers to pay for leasing and maintaining their vehicles, insurance and other expenses. Drivers involved in the lawsuit claim that they often make less than minimum wage after all the operating costs and often work more than 12 hours a day without meal breaks or overtime pay.
The plaintiffs' attorneys, in a news release Monday, said the firm could owe "at least $100 million" to about 500 current and former workers for unreimbursed expenses, back wages, penalties and interest.
The SuperShuttle matter echoes a similar lawsuit on behalf of California drivers for FedEx Ground that the company recently lost at trial and on appeal.
Robert Hawley, an adjunct labor law professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento said the SuperShuttle case could take years to make its way through the courts.
"Cases like this are hard to settle out of court," Hawley said.
"What can SuperShuttle do? They have to either change their business model or vindicate it."
About the writer:
- Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043.
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